Melaye’s recall: Kogi AG justifies position, Saraki, Ekweremadu disagree

Leke Baiyewu and Gbenga Odogun

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, on Tuesday condemned the Kogi State Government for its alleged roles in the ongoing process to recall the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, from the National Assembly.

Both of them specifically criticised the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Kogi State, Mr. Ibrahim Muhammed, for criticising the Senate as lacking constitutional backing to stop Melaye’s recall.

Ekweremadu, while raising a point of order at the plenary on Tuesday, referred the lawmakers to a three-page advertorial by Muhammed, in which the commissioner criticised his last week submissions at the Senate on Melaye’s recall.

He said the commissioner was ignorant of the position of the constitution on the recall of a federal lawmaker.

“I expect the Attorney General, instead of displaying his ignorance, to simply call me and I will educate him on the position of the law,” he said.

But Muhammed has said the state government would not take issues with Ekweremadu over his comment on the advertorial in which he referred to the recall of Melaye as an exercise in futility.

The Attorney General told one of our correspondents on the telephone on Monday that he stood by every content of the advertorial.

According to him, he has enough knowledge and experience to be able to know the position of the law on the issue of recall.

He said, “By the special grace of God, I am the Attorney General of this state, not based on the number of years of legal practice. I sit on the front row of the bench, I have adequate and enough knowledge about the position of the law and this formed the basis of the content of the advertorial.”

He said that it was only the court of competent jurisdiction that could interpret the true position of law on the matter. Ekweremadu, however,  argued that the AG was wrong  by saying that the Senate had no role to play in Melaye’s recall process.

“I don’t know how he came to the conclusion that we do not have any role to play. I stand by my position that when INEC is through with any recall process, they must write the Senate President who will read it to us and we must be satisfied that the provisions of Section 69 in reference to recall have been fully complied with.

“I pity the people of Kogi State who hired his kind of attorney general. It is unfortunate that they are paying a public servant and he is unable to do a simple work of looking at the constitution.

“Let me also emphasise that this Section 68(2) is not part of the amendments we have made since 1999; this has been the original provision of the constitution; we did not invent it and it has nothing to do with Dino. We inherited it since 1999.

“So, for him not to know about it; I don’t know where he went to law school, anyway. If he had been properly educated, he should have been conversant with the basic provisions of the constitution. I also don’t know his age at the bar but, apparently, I know that I am his senior at the bar and I expect him to show some respect to his senior. That is what we were taught at the law school.”

Saraki, in his remarks, expressed concern over “the calibre of people put in very serious positions in government.”

He stated that the constitution was clear on the recall process.

“What is even more disturbing and irresponsible is how they have spent over N10m on adverts,” he added.

The Senate President accused the state government of culpability in the move to recall Melaye due to the interest it had shown in the process.

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Source: Punchng
Melaye’s recall: Kogi AG justifies position, Saraki, Ekweremadu disagree

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