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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