It’s a pity Kogi govt spent N12m to reply my comment – Ekweremadu

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has said it is a pity that Kogi state has Ibrahim Muhammad as its attorney-general.

Ekweremadu said while reacting to an advertorial signed by Muhammad, on the floor of the senate on Tuesday.

In the advertorial, Muhammad disagreed with Ekweremadu that the senate has a role in the process of recalling a senator.

Ekweremadu however said section 68 (2) of the constitution said the senate would still deliberate on whether Melaye should be recalled or not.

“This morning my attention was drawn to a three-page advertorial, pages 20, 21 and 22 of the Leadership Newspaper by Ibrahim Muhammmad, attorney-general of Kogi, who was responding to my contribution on the floor of the senate when Senator Dino Melaye informed this senate of the efforts of the people of his constituency to recall him,” the deputy senate president said.

“I want to advise the people of Kogi state and indeed his constituents to apply their time to more useful venture in view of the very difficult conditions of recall of parliamentarians and in reference to the attorney-general, I did say that my learned friend may not have advised the people or indeed the government appropriately.

“So, this morning, Kogi state government took an advertorial to respond to me and I understand that every page costs about N700,000. For this alone, they spent about N2 million and I understand that it is an about five other papers so we are looking at about N12 million spent to responding to my comment.

“I pity the people of Kogi state that hired this kind of attorney-general and this is unfortunate that are paying a public servant and he is unable to do a simple work looking at the constitution. We must emphasise that 68 (2) is not part of the amendment since 1999. This has been the original provision of the constitution.

“It has nothing to do with Dino or whoever. It has been there since 1999 for him not to know about it – I don’t know where he went to law school anyway. If he has been properly educated, I believe he should have been conversant with the basic provisions of the constitution.

“I’m even his senior at the bar, he ought to show some respect because that is what we were taught at the law school, to respect our senior. But for the avoidance of doubt, I want to believe I have better credentials in the legal profession and my interest was constitutional law, I have a doctorate degree in law and my area is constitutional law. I have been chairman of the constitutional review committee in this national assembly since 2010.

“I expect the attorney-general instead of displaying his ignorance to call and I educate him on the correct position of the law. So, I take exception to this and I believe that he needs to refund the amount spent on this to the people of Kogi. I call on the house of assembly to institute an inquiry on who paid for this and find a way of receiving the money back to pay salaries of Kogi state.”

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