Senate to Buhari: Call your appointees to order

 Says Nigeria under Osinbajo peaceful

 Wants Customs boss sacked

 Tells Malami to obey court orders

By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja

Following the refusal of the Customs boss, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), to appear before the Senate yesterday as directed last week during plenary, the upper chamber has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately call members of his cabinet to order to avert the likely collapse of democratic institutions in the country.

Rising from a closed session which lasted 1 hour 35 minutes before commencement of plenary session yesterday, the Senate in one of its resolutions, declared Hameed Ali unfit to head the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) as Comptroller General, in view of his conduct and performance so far as the head of the service, and with particular reference to the recent uniform saga.

The upper legislative chamber, accordingly, called on the President to have Ali sacked immediately to prevent him from further embarrassing his administration with his conduct and what the Senate deemed “unpopular polices” that cared less about the welfare of Nigerians.
The Senate, in another resolution, resolved to write President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to restrain the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, from unconstitutional interference in the work of the National Assembly.

The upper chamber, which condemned the AGF for attempting to derail it from carrying out its functions, described the AGF’s letter advising the Senate to desist from further attempt to summon the Comptroller General of Customs and also urging him to wear uniform, as an insult to the National Assembly.
Malami had on Tuesday written the Clerk of the Senate, Nelson Ayewoh, demanding that further action be put on hold against the CG of Customs as the matter is now before a court, and doing so would amount to breaching court process.

Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West), in his contribution sought to know where the Attorney General derives his power from, to suggest to the Senate, or direct it on how the chamber should carry out its functions.
He said: “This is the first time that any AGF will have the temerity to do so. And by the way, what we have is not a court order or injunction, it is a mere process.

“The integrity and the independence of the legislator is on line, we have a rule which says that a matter already in court cannot be treated here, but not a matter that we are already treating and somebody went to court and you are asking us to stop.”
Citing Section 8 of the Pension Reform Act of 2004, Melaye urged the Senate to declare Ali unfit to be the CG of the Nigeria Customs Service.
“Going by the Pension Reform Act 2004, Section 8, the position of the CG is a rank and anybody holding that office is a public servant.

“The compulsory retirement age for the service is 60 years, and Hameed Ali is far above 60-years-old. He is, therefore, not qualified to hold that office. The president has always preached the rule of law; he has a choice now to choose between the rule of law and the CG.
“If we begin to have interference with our rules it will not work, and therefore, no amount of blackmail will deter us from carrying out our duty.”
But commenting on the face-off between the Senate and the Customs CG, and subsequent involvement of the AGF, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, told President Buhari in clear terms to call members of his cabinet to order.
He said: “It is important that the integrity of this institution be maintained, just as we also are in the position and must as well maintain the integrity of other institution of government.

“Distinguished colleagues, recall that this was just a simple request by the Senate that a policy that is putting more hardship on our people should be reconsidered. A policy that sounds to be retrospective, and we say please reconsider this request, and what we got was that it was irreversible upon which we invited the CG of customs to come and have a conversation with us and to properly dress up while coming here.

“I don’t see any big deal in somebody dressing up in uniform of the organisation he heads. No problem about that. People should be proud to do that and we expect him to lead by example because if he comes here properly dressed, the other officers and men will also follow the same example.

“We as public officers and people in authority must lead by example. It is the conduct you portray that those who are following us will be able to adopt. So, that for us is unacceptable and I think we have condemned it sufficiently.”
Continuing, he said: “And, of course, for the Attorney General, it is important that a message be sent to him that we are a different arm of government and that we obey the law in accordance with our constitution.

“We have our responsibility here to make laws. God forbid a day where we stopped considering the budget because somebody has gone to court to challenge the early aspect of the budget, or we stopped considering of ministers because somebody somewhere is questioning in court, the qualifications of a particular ministerial nominee.

“So, that is why it is important that this matter be settled and the President needs to caution his appointees in making sure that we obey the law, we obey the constitution, and we act in harmony. There is nothing like they versus us; we are the same government, we are the same people serving the same people.”

Meanwhile, some senators belonging to the fold of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and those of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have raised the alarm that the return of President Buhari to the country from London has ushered in another round of renewed tension, killings and confusion.

The lawmakers lamented that during the 50 days of the President’s absence, which had the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in acting capacity, the nation experienced tranquility and peace.
According to them, the activities of Boko Haram, restiveness in the Niger Delta, kidnappings, strife between the three arms of government came to a halt during the period.

One of such lawmakers, Senator Isah Hamma Misau (APC, Bauchi Central), decried the “renewed tension” in the country.
“The truth must be said, it is unfortunate that people around the President keep behaving like this. When President Buhari was away for 50 days out of the country, Nigeria was peaceful. Boko haram, bombings by Niger-Delta militants, kidnappings all stopped. Even all this kind of drama stopped.

“But now that he (President) is back, and for only two weeks, there is a lot of tension and problems everywhere,” he said.
He urged the President to be wary of sycophants and overzealous appointees, as their actions might jeopardise and bring about disrepute to his administration.
“I, therefore, urge President Buhari to be careful of some of his appointees who are members of his cabinet, because if you look at the way they are going, they will bring bad reputation to the President.”

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