The Labour Party (LP) has criticised the removal of Senator Ali Ndume as the chief whip of the senate by the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Ndume was removed at plenary on Wednesday after the Senate President Godswill Akpabio read a letter from the leadership of the APC demanding the removal of Ndume as a principal officer in the 10th senate.
Obiora Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary of the party, described Ndume’s removal as a signal that speaking truth to power has become a crime in Nigeria.
The statement read in part: “The crime of Senator Ndume was his bold expression of his concerns regarding the escalating cost of living and food scarcity in Nigeria, and his revelation that President Bola Tinubu has chosen to play the ostrich even in the face of acute starvation being witnessed in Nigeria.”
“The dimension this administration is taken is grave. Few months ago, Senator Abdul Ningi exposed the rot in the government where the Senate leadership and the executive collaborators allegedly padded the budget. That got him suspended and intimidated out of his lawful representative role as a senator.
“It is needless talking about the economic crisis on going in Nigeria even where a few cabal are massively enriching themselves. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently said that food inflation has risen to 40.66 percent.
“Even with all these glaring and scaring challenges, the government is said to have paid about N150bn for a presidential jet, building roads that have no direct bearing with the economic crises in Nigeria”.
“This is clear a tyranny of a cabal against the legislative autonomy. Nigeria is gradually descending into dictatorship and we are calling on the citizens to be on an alert and put up a defence against the starvation weapon being deployed by this administration.”
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