Following the removal of the chief whip, Senator Ali Ndume, the Civil society Legislative advocacy centre (CISLAC) has accused the Senate under the leadership of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio of restraining the voices of the senators and tags the removal as autocratic.
In a statement signed by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, the Association condemned the removal of the Chief Whip, Ndume tagging it as introducing autocracy and stifling dissent while undermining democratic representation in the Senate.
He also asserted that it demonstrated a trend of silencing senators and preventing them from voicing the concerns of the Nigerian people whom they were elected to serve, likening it to autocracy.
They said: “By restricting senators from expressing national concerns, the Senate risks eroding its mandate and weakening the legislature as an independent arm of government”.
Stressing the significant role of Ndume in the formation of the current Senate leadership as well as governance, the Civil society Legislative advocacy centre (CISLAC) emphasised that unless a senator violated Senate’s rules or the Constitution, their removal would reflect sycophancy and undermined the Senate’s credibility as an independent body.
The senate had on the 17th of July unanimously removed the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume on grounds of “unguarded utterances”.
He had earlier spoken to journalists that The current president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was being shielded from knowing what was happening in the country by certain persons, thus making him unreachable.
The suggestion to remove the chief whip was from Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the APC chairman who wrote to the senate.
