Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, has ripped into Ibrahim Muhammad, Kogi State Attorney-General, for ill-advising Yahaya Bello, the state governor, to take up paid advertorials in major newspapers to criticise him.

The Kogi State government had placed a three-page advertorial in the newspapers, castigating Ekweremadu for his contribution on the floor of the senate during the debate of Dino Melaye’s recall process.

“I want to advise that the people of Kogi state and indeed his (Yahaya Bello) constituents to better apply their time to more useful ventures in view of the very difficult conditions of recall of parliamentarians,” Ekweremadu said.

“And in reference to the attorney-general, I did say that my learned friend may not have advised the people or indeed the government appropriately.

“So this morning Kogi state government took an advertorial to respond to me and I understand that every page cost about N700,000. For these alone, they spent about N2 million and I understand that it is an about five other papers so we are looking about N12 million spent on responding to my comment.

“I pity the people of Kogi state that hired this kind of attorney-general and it is unfortunate that they are paying a public servant and he is unable to do a simple work looking at the constitution.”

Ekweremadu pointed told Muhammad to respect him because he has a doctorate degree in Constitutional Law, hence deserves more respect from the Kogi AG.

“I don’t know where he went to law school, anyway. If he has been properly educated, I believe he should have been conversant with the basic provisions of the constitution,” he said.

“I’m even his senior at the bar, he ought to show some respect because that is what we are taught at the law school… to respect our senior.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I want to believe I have better credentials in the legal profession and my interest was constitutional law, I have a doctorate degree in law and my area is constitutional law, I have been chairman of the constitutional review committee in this national assembly since 2010.

“I expect the attorney-general, instead of displaying his ignorance, to call me and I will educate him on the correct position of the law.

“So I take exception to this and I believe that he needs to refund the amount spent on this to the people of Kogi. I call on the house of assembly to institute an enquiry on who paid for this and find a way of receiving the money back to pay salaries of Kogi state.”