The Senate, yesterday, declared the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) unfit to hold public office in the country and, therefore, urged him to resign and vacate the office.
In its resolution, the Senate held that for refusing to honour the summons on the NCS retrospective policy on duty payment and refusal to wear Customs uniform, Ali was unfit to hold any public office.
The Senate also called on the Customs Service to cancel the proposed retrospective duty payment on vehicles in Nigeria, rather than the current suspension status of the initiative.
It also urged the Customs to, instead of imposing draconian policy on Nigerians, devise more effective and result-oriented strategies towards realising more import revenues from vehicle importers in the country, and not block the nation’s highways to harass and extort money from the citizenry.
The apex legislative chamber further condemned in very strong terms, what it described as undue interference in its constitutional proceedings by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN). It also resolved to write a strong letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on these resolutions for his information and possible guidance on what to do with his erring appointees.
The Red Chamber specifically resolved to tell President Buhari in the letter, to caution the Attorney General to desist from meddling in the affairs of the Senate and to respect the fundamental principle of separation of powers in running the affairs of government.
The Senate further resolved to transmit these resolutions to the House of Representatives for concurrence, so that they would subsequently become resolutions of the National Assembly, and not just those of the Upper chamber.
This was as some senators observed with dismay that the enemies of this government, fighting to pull it down by frustrating its developmental programmes, were those in the Presidency, calling on Nigerians to pray for President Buhari to succeed.
The Senate made these resolutions, following a comprehensive debate on the letter written to it by the AGF, advising it to stay action on its summon of the Customs CG, Ali, who was supposed to appear before the chamber yesterday in relation to his policy on payment of duty on vehicles.
The Senate had gone into executive session that lasted for one hour, 35 minutes, where it deliberated on the issue of Customs CG and the perceived encroachment of the AGF on the powers and duties of the Senate.
When the Senate reverted to plenary, it approved the votes and proceedings of the previous legislative day, in accordance with parliamentary practice; received petitions from some senators and then resolved into the Committee of the Whole, to approve President Buhari’s $500 million Eurobond request.
After that, the leader of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, delegated his deputy, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, to act on his behalf, who then called on the Senate to consider the 13th item on the Order Paper, which was the proposed briefing by the Customs boss. In spite of the fact that the Senate was already aware that Ali was not at the National Assembly to honour its summon, Na’Allah still went ahead to call on the chamber to receive the scheduled briefing.
However, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweramadu, who presided over the session, interjected that there was no need for the Senate to waste its time to form the Committee of the Whole because the CG was not present.
He then told the chamber that the AGF sent a letter to the Senate, urging it to stay action on the summon on Ali, saying that there was a pending suit in the court on the matter.
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