A member of the Senate has said the Senate
followed due process in removing former
Senate leader, Ali Ndume.
Sen. Kabiru Marafa has debunked speculations
that former Majority Leader, Sen. Ali Ndume,
was removed because of his stand on the
confirmation of Mr Ibrahim Magu, Acting
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
Marafa, who is Chairman Senate Committee on
Petroleum (Downstream), made this known in
an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The lawmaker said it was the prerogative of the
party to appoint or reject any principal officer as
contained in the Senate Standing Rules.
Mafara, who is the spokesman of Unity Forum,
a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
senators in support of Lawan, said 40 APC
lawmakers appended their signatures in favour
of Ndume’s removal.
He also told NAN that the most important thing
was that the lawmakers that appended their
signatures wanted Ndume removed.

“The rumours making the rounds that Ndume
was removed because of Magu’s confirmation
of appointment is not true.
“I am not from the same place with Magu as
Ndume is but I fought for him.
“I am in the senate as an APC senator and as
long as what we do is within the dictates of the
Constitution, I am here to protect it.
“The President submitted Magu’s name and I
worked for Magu and a lot of senators did too,’’
he said.

On Ndume’s acceptance of his removal, Marafa
commended him for his sportsmanship.
He, however, faulted him for claiming that due
process was not followed in his removal.
According to Marafa, “we, as a senate, are
guided by our rules; whatever we do, we are
guided by our rules and those rules are offshoot
of the constitution.
“Section 60 of the Constitution gives us the
right to regulate our own procedure; the
moment we say this is how we want to do it we
have a responsibility to do it that way.
“If you go back to Order 32, Section 6, you will
see how principal officers can be removed.
“It says you can remove a principal officer by a
majority, it didn’t say the officer must be
consulted.
“This is unlike is the case with executive
officers like the President and governors; the
constitution says that you have to confront
them with your allegations. You cannot just sit
down and impeach a governor.’’
The lawmaker urged journalists to always
investigate before reporting any matter of public
interest to avoid misleading the people and to
interpret rules correctly to avoid
misinterpretation.

“This is so that we are not perceived as
applying the rules selectively or that we violated
the rules in the case of Ndume and followed the
rules in another instance.
“For the record, we followed the due process in
Ndume’s case.”
Sen. Ali Ndume was on Jan. 11 removed as a
Majority Leader by the APC Senate Caucus. He
was replaced by Sen. Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe
North) who, until his appointment, was
Chairman Senate Committee on Defence.
Ndume on the floor of the senate on Wednesday
accepted his removal in the interest of
promoting democracy.