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Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly,
is only two days old at the Senate since his ordeal with the Police and
the court in both Abuja and Kogi State, but he is ruffling feathers
already.
On Thursday — a day after asking to be allowed to seat with Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) senators on return to plenary for the first time in
nearly two months — Melaye stopped short of asking President Muhammadu
Buhari to sack Hameed Ali, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS), as Chairman of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO).
“The Comptroller-General of customs is the chairman of the Buhari campaign
organization; the Comptroller-General is a rank and shouldn’t lead a
campaign organization,” he said.
Ali it was who led the BSO to Buhari’s office on May 22 for a conversation
that led into Buhari suggesting that a former president (ostensibly
Olusegun Obasanjo) spent $16bn on power projects with nothing to show for
it.
During the conversation, the President also lambasted the National
Assembly, saying: “Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the
National Assembly. What have they been doing?
“Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?”
Melaye has now made it clear that the comments did not go down well with him.
“Sen. Dino Melaye cites Order 14 states that Mr. President through
Channels and AIT insulted @nassnigeria saying he does not know what they
are doing and many of us have been here for over 10 years yet, have
nothing to show for it,” the official handle of the Senate tweeted later.
“This statement is demeaning to the @nassnigeria,” Melay said. “I call on
Mr. President to apologize on the statement issued by him to the National
Assembly.”