Tinubu <\/a>differed from the version passed by the National Assembly.<\/p>\nReacting to Ndume\u2019s claim, Agbese dismissed allegations of legislative cover-up, insisting that it was sheer mischief to suggest that the tax laws were falsified.<\/p>\n
However, addressing newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, Ndume hit back by labelling Agbese \u201cmaga dog\u201d and disrespectful, saying he is old enough to be Agbese\u2019s father.<\/p>\n
He stated that Agbese\u2019s remarks were disrespectful and called on the House leadership to rein in the deputy spokesman.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI call on the leadership of the House to rein in this maga dog. The man who claims to speak for the House should not be a maga dog. Agbese is too junior to take issues with me on a matter that does not affect him directly. He is the deputy spokesman of the House, not the spokesman.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe senator explained that the controversy is still under review by a committee led by Muktar Betara.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly the Betara-led panel has the locus standi to declare, after investigation, that there is no difference between the version passed by parliament and that which was subsequently gazetted,<\/em>\u201d Ndume said.<\/p>\nHe added that Agbese\u2019s comments reflect inexperience and an attempt to curry favour with House leadership,<\/p>\n
\u201cAgbese is forgiven on the grounds of inexperience. He is a first-timer. I was in the House in 2003 when he was probably in secondary school. For him to disrespectfully come out to say that my statement is mischievous is very unfortunate. If he has the guts to say that I am mischievous, it means he can tell his father the same thing. At 66, if I\u2019m not old enough to be his father, I am close to that. My first daughter is 42 years old,<\/em>\u201d he stated.<\/p>\nNdume stressed that his criticisms were procedural, not personal:<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not insult anybody. I cross-checked the votes and proceedings, clause by clause, before I said that there were some flaws. If the harmonised version says \u2018this shall be,\u2019 and the gazetted copy says \u2018this will be,\u2019 these are two different things, subject to interpretation<\/em>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\nThe senator accused Agbese of acting on personal motives, seeking approval from House leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the dirty jobs he is doing. He is hoping to find himself in the good books of the leadership of the House, but he has only succeeded in embarrassing himself and the House of Representatives. He is not speaking for the House because the House has yet to take a position on this matter. I insist that parliament should do a comparison and examine the sections of both versions of the Tax Acts section by section. This way, Nigerians will be comfortable,\u201d<\/em> Ndume said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The lawmaker representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, has berated the Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, over his submission on the version of the tax laws signed by President Bola Tinubu. Abia Radio News reports that Ndume, during a television interview, has stated that the version of the tax laws signed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[769,3078,2509],"class_list":["post-240845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ali-ndume","tag-philip-agbese","tag-tax-laws"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ali-Ndume.webp.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}