Recall: Melaye’s fate falls on Senate not INEC — Saraki

process.

Speaking when Melaye raised a point of order during yesterday’s plenary, Saraki urged the electoral umpire to adhere religiously to the constitutional provision on the exercise.

Senator Melaye had sought for the protection of the Senate over his planned recall which he said was at the instance of the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello.

He faulted the way the process of sending him home was being handled.

He told the Senate that Governor Yahaya Bello was angry with him over his call that salaries of Kogi workers should be paid.

“My only crime is that I’m asking that my state government should pay the 17 months salaries of the state workers. The governor is spending our money on the pages of newspapers to recall me,” he said.

Faulting the recall process, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP, Delta), said criticism was part of democracy and that politicians should be accommodating.

“The main issue is INEC. The speed at which they are going is as if they are working the script of somebody; it is just as if they are asked to go and remove Dino. With what they are doing, it means a governor can just sit down, concoct signatures and say somebody should be removed,” he said.

Supporting, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said the move to recall Melaye was an exercise in futility.

Citing Section 69 of the Nigerian Constitution, Ekweremadu said the Kogi State government was just wasting the precious time and money of its people.

Addressing newsmen, spokesperson of the Senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said there was no provision in the 2017 Appropriation Act of INEC for the recall of any lawmaker and this had raised question as to how the electoral commission got the resources for the exercise.