I was the one who collected senators signature to impeach Ekweremadu - Ndume

The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, on Thursday, caused a stir in the upper chamber when he revealed how he collected signatures of other senators to impeach the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in the 7th Senate.

Ekweremadu

Ndume stated this while raising a point of order to draw the attention of the Senate to an “offensive report” published in The Nation newspaper of Thursday.

The newspaper’s report had alleged that 22 Northern senators who signed the vote of confidence passed in Senator Bukola Saraki leadership of the Senate, were working against the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari, in the red chamber.

Ndume said he contested the deputy senate president position with Ekweremadu on June 9, 2015 with the intention to win but had to accept his fate when the latter defeated him.

He said, “I personally still want to be senate president. I also believe that any of us will not mind to be the senate president. As for the deputy senate president, I contested against the deputy senate president. I did not contest with him to lose that election.

“I contested with him in order to win that election but it is God that gives power to whoever he wants. What ever happened on the 9th of June, my friend Ekweremadu became the deputy senate president.

“Let me say for the record and for those that were not in the 7th Senate, it is not something of pride, but I stand here to say, he is here, that I am the only person that attempted to impeach him.

“ I collected signatures in order to impeach him because of certain things which I explained and we discussed.

“Why I am taking us through all these is because the nation is watching us and this drama that is going on cannot continue because that is not why we are here and this leadership thing whether we like it or not, whether we change it or we maintain this one, only one person will be the senate president.

“I want to say something about an issue that has been lingering in this Senate and it is about to distort or take us away from the main reason why we are here.

“I said it before and I am still maintaining this position. Each and every one of us here that is elected as a senator is qualified to be the senate president by all standards but it only that out of the 109 of us, one has to be the senate president while another person has to be the deputy senate president. It so happened, that Senator Bukola Saraki is now our senate president.

“Senate leadership has gone beyond an individual. You cannot become the leader of the Senate when the senators are not ready to accept your leadership. If two-thirds of the senators say today that I am not the leader I am out.”

I was the one who collected senators signature to impeach Ekweremadu - Ndume

Boko Haram sponsorship: No secret trial for Ndume – Court

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Vanguard

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, refused an application for the trial of Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume who is accused of sponsoring the Boko Haram sect, to be conducted in secret.

Mohammed Ndume

The application was filed by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN.

The Federal Government had alleged that Ndume who is currently representing Borno South Federal Constituency in the Senate, was the one that hitherto furnished the sect with information that aided their terrorist operations in Nigeria.

He was among other things alleged to have furnished them with the telephone numbers of top government officials and Judges, among which included the phone number of the AGF himself.

The sect was said to have called some of those whose numbers were given to them and threatened to visit them with ‘fire and brimstone’.

The government had earlier tendered a proof of evidence that indicated that Ndume who is answering to a 4-count criminal charge, made contacts with the Boko Haram sect 73 times.

Though some call logs and three digital video discs (DVDs), containing call-data records, as well as documents containing findings based on investigations carried out by a Special Investigation Panel (SIP) set up by the Department of State Security, DSS, were previously admitted into evidence by the trial court, it was subsequently expunged from the trial record on the order of the Appeal Court  in Abuja.

Meantime, following the decision of the Federal Government to produce two more witnesses to testify against the accused lawmaker, it urged the court to order a closed-door hearing on the matter.

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Boko Haram sponsorship: No secret trial for Ndume – Court

My phones in court’s custody called my new number — Ndume

SENATOR Aliyu Ndume, standing trial over his alleged involvement with the Boko Haram Islamic sect, on Wednesday, told a Federal High Court that his two mobile telephones confiscated and in possession of the court were being used to call his new phone numbers.

His lawyer, Mr Rickey Tarfa (SAN), told the trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the strange development when the matter came up for trial before the court yesteday.

Kolawole, in his response, expressed shock and said: “I don’t know much about technology. How can a phone that is switched off be able to receive and make calls? I think you should go to MTN for clarification and also confer with the prosecution witness to know what to do.

“Really, it is strange to me that a phone line that is not active can be used to make calls,” the judge      held.

Ndume, through his lawyer, showed the court the call log obtained from MTN communications.

He had, in a letter to MTN, said he had already complained to the service provider that he had been receiving strange calls from his previous number, which is in the custody of the Federal High Court, Abuja, where he is standing trial for allegedly sponsoring Boko Haram activities.

According to him, the first call to his new number, using the same old number, was 9:56am on 13th June 2014 which cut off after few seconds.

“Then I got the second call from my former number, which is supposed to be in the custody of the Court at 9.58 a.m. which also went off after few seconds.”

He said he was again called by the second number, at 10.07 a.m. and “when I asked who was speaking, the caller said he was George. He asked me whether I got his text message and I said no.” Ndume added that the line went off after he told the caller that he did not get any SMS.

Excerpt from the letter to the MTN dated 13th June, 2014 reads: “When I tried to call back, I got the voice message that, ‘the number you are trying to call is not available at the moment please try again later.’

“I immediately ?called MTN customer care centre using 180 and I was connected to one Juwairah Muktar, after lodging my complaint she asked me to hold on, so that she could talk to her team leader Sybil Uwake.

“She subsequently got back to me and advised that I should report? the case to the nearest police station.

“I accordingly reported the case at Apo Police Station where I was made to write a formal complaint.

“In view of this and the fact that I am currently standing trial at the Federal High Court in connection with the use of my phone and the seriousness of the case, I wish to request for the following information, my call data record for 13th June, 2014, identification of the caller and the location where the call originated and the IMEI number of the phone used.”

He attached a copy of the calls log given to him by the telecommunication company.

The calls? log, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent showed that the strange calls emanated from Abuja.

Ndume was arraigned on four count charge bordering on terrorism, after he was implicated by one Ali Konduga, said to be the a former spokesperson for Boko Haram, Ali Konduga had since been convicted and sentenced.

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My phones in court’s custody called my new number — Ndume