A group under the auspices of Advocates of Good Governance has lambasted Senator Ali Ndume over comments that Senator Abdul’Aziz Yari has no competence but money to spend.

The group’s National Coordinator, Babagana Ibrahim and Secretary Bulus Joshua, in a media statement on Sunday, described Ndume’s reason for rejection of Yari’s candidature as “infantile, pedestrian and an embarrassingly unguarded outburst”.

The statement wondered why Senator Akpabio should hand over his campaign for the Senate Presidency to Ndume, “who, instead of articulating reasons why his candidate should be chosen, has resorted to personality attack.

The group, in the statement, also expressed disgust over Ndume’s “dragging of Dangote and other Nigerian entrepreneurs, into a matter that has nothing to do with them, as they’re not politicians or elected Senators”.

Senator Ndume was widely reported by the media to have said if the battle for Senate Presidency was about money, “we could ask people like Dangote and Rabiu to come to preside over the Senate because they are not only rich in Nigeria but in Africa.” The group described the Dangote example as “another childish comment from a supposedly enlightened Senator of the Federal Republic. “

The group argued that the lawmaker was trying to divert attention away from the recent endorsement of Yari by a recognized group from his immediate constituency of the Northeast.

” We can imagine how shocked Senator Ndume was, due to the endorsement of Yari’s ambition by a registered and respected Northern Youth Unity Forum, led by Usman Alhaji Salihu, from Ndume’s Borno Constituency, recently”.