FROM: EMMANUEL ADEYEMI, Lokoja

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

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