The Kogi State Government, on Monday,
attacked Governor Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom state, over his comments on
the ongoing recall process of the senator representing Kogi west
senatorial district, Dino Melaye.
Governor Emmanuel had, last
week, praised Sen. Melaiye as a ‘general’ in the Senate who has
performed so well and wondered why his constituents should want to
recall such a performing senator.
The occasion was the empowerment program organised by the minority leader in the Senate , Senator Godswill Akpabio.
The government said Emmanuel’s position on the development had revealed his disdain for the people of the senatorial district.
According
to a statement by the Director-General, media and publicity to the
governor, Kingsley Fanwo, he said the decision of Governor Emmanuel to
refer to Melaye as a “general” in the senate was disturbing as he was
rating a “non performing” senator over and above those that were
performing.
He said, “We believe that Governor Emmanuel’s
unveiled disdain for a long-suffering people trudging the booby-trapped
path to Recall of their Senator in a bid to recover their dignity is
uncalled for.
“Governor Udom’s scathing rebuke for Kogi West
people who are engaged in legal pursuit of their legitimate aspiration
to terminate irresponsible representation goes against all democratic
norms. It also does gratuitous violence to the customary esprit de corps
which ordinarily ought to actuate the conduct of brother Governors and
States towards one another in the Nigerian polity.
“What is even
more appalling is Governor Udom Emmanuel’s decoration of Dino Melaye
with the rank and privileges of ‘General’ among all the Distinguished
Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while consigning others to
‘Recruit’. Dino Melaye is a General in the Senate of the 8th Assembly
where even Governor Udom Emmanuel’s accomplished predecessor sits? This
is unprecedented”.
The statement said more disturbing was the
fact that the Akwa Ibom governor spoke at an event where another senator
was preforming his constitutional role as against the Kogi west
senator.
“The irony is that Governor Emmanuel made these comments
at an event where Senator Godswill Akpabio, one of Dino Melaye’s
contemporaries in the Senate, empowered his own people with 4 tractors,
over 800 power-generating sets, 100 computer sets and printers, as well
as sewing machines, grain-grinding machines, block molding machines and
tricycles. He also announced scholarships and grants to hundreds of
students from his constituency.
“The Kogi West Senator attended
his colleague’s Briefing and Constituency Empowerment event, not to
learn how to represent well, but obviously as Comedian of the Day. He
told false stories of unpaid salaries in his state. On cue he thrilled
the crowd with his Aje Kun Iya Ni’Oje signature ballad and capered along
with his usual inebriated gusto before preaching his false message of
death being reward for both lying and telling the truth.
“He
truly proved himself the ‘performing Senator’ Governor Udom Emmanuel
called him that day. Governor Udom Emmanuel’s later remarks in praise of
his guest was just the pepper Kogi people needed sprinkled on their
wounds while people whose Senator actually knows his job carted their
dividends of democracy home”.
“Now it is clear that Governor Udom
Emmanuel seems to like our vacuous Senator so much, we would be much
obliged if Akwa Ibom will take him off our hands for good. We can
negotiate details of his transfer before the applicable windows close.
Since Akwa Ibom receives several times the FAAC allocations accruing to
Kogi State (we do not here question the equity of it, just stating
basic facts), and since Senator Dino Melaye is a self-confessed butcher
and sharer of elephants, there is no doubt that Akwa Ibom’s elephantine
financial receipts will indeed be more to his taste.
“For the
avoidance of doubt, the good people of Kogi West, having decided they
have had enough of Senator Dino Melaye’s selfish brand of
misrepresentation, and having undertaken to tread this slippery slope to
self-respect have the support of not just all of us in Kogi State, but
of all Nigerians of goodwill, including upstanding Akwa Ibomites. We
therefore urge our brother, the still very much respected Governor of
our brother State, Akwa Ibom, to show more sensitivity in his future
utterances” he added
