Senators under the aegis of Northern Senators Forum on Wednesday sacked Sen. Abdullahi Adamu (APC-Nasarawa) as the chairman of the group for alleged misappropriation of funds.
Deputy President of the Senate Ike Ekweremadu made the announcement while reading a letter addressed to the Senate by the forum’s spokesperson, Sen. Dino Melaye.
The letter read in part: “This is to inform the Senate that the majority signatories of this letter are members of the Northern Senators Forum.
“We have removed Sen. Abdullahi Adamu as Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum for financial mismanagement and maladministration.
“We announce his immediate replacement with Sen. Aliyu Wamakko,” the letter said.
Answering questions from newsmen, Melaye said that the decision of the majority of the members of the forum was that they wanted to have a change of leadership.
“The allegation investigated and found out to be true is that there was financial mismanagement; that monies were spent without the consent of members and the executive members were not being carried along.
“The organisation is becoming moribund; it is ineffective, we are not doing the things that we are supposed to do and we need to inject some vibrancy into the forum and many positions have been taken without consulting with the executive and members,” Melaye said.
In a related development, a member of the Northern Senators Forum, Sen. Shehu Sani, told newsmen that under Adamu’s leadership, the forum could not account for part of the money inherited from the 7th Assembly.
According to him, it was alleged that the former Chairman of the Forum handed over N70 million to Adamu at the inception of the 8th assembly but part of the money cannot be accounted for.
“There are some things that some of my colleagues cannot say but I’m not used to holding back what is the truth.
“When we resumed as senators, Sen. Ahmed Lawan tendered the sum of N70 million to the 8th Senate.
“That N70 million was monies gathered by northern senators from the 7th senate. So it was handed over to the 8th senators from northern Nigeria under the 8th Senate.
“I think this country is becoming a huge joke. First of all it was the rodent that drove away the President and we now have snakes consuming about N36 million, and you now you have monkeys,” Sani said.