By ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Abuja
Wednesday, May 31, 2006

In a letter to the Senate, dated May 25, 2006, where he denied using abusive words against senators, Ali said that the words ascribed to him by Kuta, his chief accuser, were “confabulations.” The dictionary defines “confabulations” thus: “create memory of supposed past events; to give fictitious account of past event, believing they are true, in order to cover a gap in the memory caused by an illness as dementia.”

Ali insisted that “ it is true that I gave BBC radio service an interview the previous week, but I did not in any way denigrate the senators in that interview. The words attributed to me by my chief accuser (Kuta) are confabulations. I submit herewith the tape of that interview as submitted to me by the BBC World Service.

“I also attach herewith the transcript of the interview tape and the English translation. My public statement at the emergency meeting of the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) had reassured the nation that I did not mean to denigrate anyone.”

It would be recalled that Ali was accuted of describing senators as “rascals and idiots” for killing the third term agenda. He spoke on Hausa Service of BBC.

This had prompted Kuta, who relied on Order 14 of the Senate’s Standing Rule, to move a motion, asking the Senate to condemn the purported statement, demand an unreserved apology from Ali and to strip him of all the privileges accrued to a former senator as contained in Order 17 of the Senate’s Standing Rules.

At the end of the debate on Kuta’s motion, the Senate resolved to invite Ali to state his own side of the story. But he failed to show up.