Dino Melaye : Attorney-General has no such powers to suggest to us how to carry out our (duty).”

Senator Dino Melaye has said he will continue to speak the truth even if it costs him his life.

“You speak the truth, you die; you lie, you die. Melaye Daniel Dino has decided to speak the truth and die,” the Senator representing Kogi West said on Wednesday in reaction to a letter that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, wrote to the Senate.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, had written the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, saying it would be sub-judicial for the upper chamber to insist that the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hammed Ali (retd.) should wear the NCS uniform.

Melaye, who made reference to the degree-certificate scandal involving him by describing himself as an authentic graduate and student of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, condemned Malami’s letter, saying it was an insult to the Senate.

He said, “What we have from the Attorney-General of the Federation is an insult on the institution of the National Assembly and the Senate to be precise.

“I ask again, where did the Attorney-General of the Federation who we screened on this floor derive his powers from to authorise, direct the Senate or suggest to the Senate how to carry out our constitutional mandate?

“The Attorney-General has no such powers to suggest to us, to direct us, to motivate us, or even imply by inference how we should carry out our (duty).”

He argued that the AGF’s letter was asking the Senate to suspend its constitutional duty because of “a mere court process”, not an injunction or order.

He also said that based on the civil service rules, Hameed Ali was not fit to be Customs CG because he was over 60 years old, which was the retirement age in the service.