The Senate has called for the resignation of the Comptroller-General of Customs after he failed to honor its summons to appear before plenary on Wednesday, 22nd March 2017 in his official uniform.
The resolution came after the letter from the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami was read in the chamber by the Clerk of the Senate, Mr. Nelson Oyewo urging it to suspend its invitation to Col. Hameed Ali. In the letter titled “Muhammad Ibrahim Esq. VS Col. Hameed Ibrahim (rtd) and 4 ors”, the AGF claimed to have sought a declaration in Court on “whether the oversight functions of the National Assembly extends to compelling and/or giving directives to the 1st defendant to wear uniform”. The AGF also called on the Senate to suspend all further actions on the matter until the constitutional issues raised on the subject were resolved by the Court of law and since the matter was sub-judice (i.e. before the Court of law), the Comptroller General would not be honoring the invitation.
After deliberations on the letter, the Senate resolved to:
“Ensure the cancellation of the customs policy to impound vehicles without duties in addition to calling for the resignation of the Comptroller General”
Condemning the actions of the AGF, it also agreed that the resolutions would be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence before being forwarded to the President, Muhammadu Buhari for action.
It would be recalled that the Comptroller General had on Wednesday, March 15th appeared before the Senate but was immediately dismissed because he failed to appear in his customs uniform as directed by the Senate in their invitation.
