You May Be The Next Victim, Ndume Tells Ekweremadu
The immediate past Leader of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume has warned the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu to watch his back, saying he may be the next victim of the politics in the upper chamber.
Reacting to his removal during plenary on Wednesday,under Order 43 (personal explanation) Ndume expressed dissatisfaction with the procedure used to remove him from office as Leader.
Ndume said as far as he is concern has done nothing to warrant his removal
His words: “I went to pray yesterday and there was change in leadership, particularly affecting me, and I felt it is important for me to have been given the chance to, as I said when I was nominated as the Senate Leader by my colleagues, for the opportunity given to me to serve as the Senate Leader.
“When I was nominated as the Senate Leader, I said one thing at that time and I want to repeat it today that as a senator I am not better than anybody here and I also want to believe that all of us are equal in this Senate.
While thanking God for giving him the courage to carry on while in office as Senate Leader, Ndume also thanked his colleagues, “So, I want to thank unanimously, especially my colleagues, for the confidence you had in me.
“I thank God that throughout my service as the Senate Leader, most of the times my colleagues casually will say Leader we are proud of you. I was not found wanting for anything that I know and because of the unity of this Senate that is more important than myself, three times I offered to resign and if that will bring peace, but I believe that God’s time is the best.
“You (Ekweremadu) are one of those that even warned me here to stop saying that I will resign, but yesterday I was not around, change of leadership was announced.
“In fact, if the number of those that lost confidence in me is not up to this number and I am made to know, I will resign because I did not become a Senate Leader in order to lose confidence of any of you and that is why I am concerned about the loss of confidence because as far as I know, I have not done anything.
“But then just like that the Senate caucus has the right to say we have lost confidence in you and I think that should be now that I have said it, I think it’s on record that I did not do anything, not to the best of my knowledge, I did not do anything, but as I said since my colleagues consciously, 38 of them, signed it.
“So, if they signed that they have lost confidence, what Dino Melaye is trying to bring out now is not what and I am not going there at all because by the time you are to be removed at least you will be confronted with allegations on what you have done and be given the chance to defend yourself.
“But as I said, since I have lost confidence, even if it is 10 of you members, then I have no moral ground to continue to lead this Senate because that means there are some people that are not with me.
“Having said that, I want to say that this Senate is an institution that we must protect. How do you protect the institution? It is to obey the rules and the tradition.
“If today, just like that without telling somebody and he goes out, if it is Ndume today and it’s okay, it may be, God forbid, Ekweremadu tomorrow.
“So, I want to once again say thank you very much for the opportunity given me to serve as the Senate Leader and I wish my brother the new Senate Leader, we have been struggling for this for a long time, I hope and I wish you the best of service to this important institution.”
In his response, Ekweremadu applauded Ndume for his courage to accept what happened in the best interest of the Senate.
