From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Suspended Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, has formally admitted fault over his utterances against President Bola Tinubu, apologising to the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to forgive him his mistakes.
Senator Ndume rendered the apology while fielding questions from newsmen on the sidelines after honouring the invitation by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) at the national headquarters of the ruling party in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that having realised his mistakes of going public as a senior member of the upper legislative chambers of the National Assembly, instead of coming to the party as a last option, he had to promise the NWC that such mistake will not happen again.
The Senator claimed that he did not however insult Mr. President or said anything offensive against the party and the Senate, neither did the President pick offence against him.
Ndume said: “On Monday, I was invited by the party and here I am to discuss family matters, actually the national chairman is not just a national chairman to me but a father. With what has happened which you are all aware, it is not surprising that I am invited to hear my own side.
“We had family discussions and I actually accepted the mistake of not talking to the party as a last point and I promised the party that all my observations as a senior member of the family should have terminated or ended with the party.
“That is something that moving forward but whatever I said or whatever I did was out of patriotism and those issues maybe said strong but they are true but then I should have talked to the party as the last bus stop.
“My membership, I have not been expelled, even the party did not say we don’t want you here, because he is my father, the party is my father, the only thing the party said is that look if you don’t want this house you can go to any house. Where will I go? This is my house.
“The President and the Senate have nothing to do with this, the President did not take offence, I didn’t insult the President, I didn’t say anything against the party but I left the party out of reaching on issues and so, please I think that is all I can say,” he quipped.
Responding, the national chairman of the ruling party, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, expressed confidence that Senator Ndume may reclaim his position after the Senate finished reviewing his case.
“We are quite satisfied with his apology like he said we invited him and you know the party is the father of everybody as a party, we are free to invite legislators, we are free to invite members of the executive, and we are even free to invite all the appointed party members in the government.
“So, that is why we decided to come, so, it is a family issues we need to resolve it and we are writing to the National Assembly, conveying what has transpired between senator Ndume and the party and you know he apologised to the party and we convey the same issue to the National Assembly, as we do that we hope they can review their position,” Ganduje assured.
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