Dino's recall: I pity Kogi state indigenes- Deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu says

Deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, says 
he has pity for the people of Kogi state over their stance to recall Senator Dino Melaye who represents Kogi West in the senate.

Ekweremadu said this on the floor of the senate while
 he was reacting to an advertorial on a National daily in 
which the Attorney General of the state, Ibrahim 
Muhammad, called him out for a comment he made on
 the floor of the senate regarding Dino's recall.

Ekweremadu last week said the recall process was dead on
arrival and that the senate would have to certify the recall
process carried out by INEC before Dino can be shown the door out of the house. In the newspaper publication, Muhammad faulted Ekweremadu's position.

“I must put on record that legal opinion of senator
Ekweremadu on the role of the senate in the recall
process, the senate has no role whatsoever in the recall
exercise than to receive the certificate under the hand of
the chairman of INEC stating that the provision of section
69 of the constitution has been complied with see 68 h
of the 1999 constitution as amended,” Muhammad wrote
Reacting to the publication, Ekweremadu during plenary this
morning, said the Attorney general forgot section 68 (2) of the
constitution where it said the senate would still deliberate on
whether Melaye should be recalled or not. He said he had pity for the people of Kogi state for appointing such an individual as their Attorney General.

“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. 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.”he said