For the second time as one of the principal officers in the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC Borno South), was removed as chief whip, similar to a fate he suffered in January 2017, when he was removed as leader of the 8th Senate.
After his removal yesterday, the Senate President Godwin Akpabio made him the Senate Committee on Tourism chairman.
Aside from removing Ndume as Senate chief whip, his deputy chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Appropriations was also removed by reducing him to chairman of the Committee on Tourism.
His successor (Monguno) as chief whip, also took over as deputy chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
The Senate, however, gave Ndume a soft landing when Senator Cyril Fasuyi (APC Ekiti North) moved for Ndume to face the Senate Committee on Code of Conducts, Ethics and Privileges on an allegation of kleptomania against them.
In an apparent move to save Ndume from suspension, Akpabio in his remarks on Fasuyi’s motion, said since the APC NWC had requested for his removal as whip and approved, he should be forgiven for now.