In a swift reaction to allegation that Senator Dino Melaye is on the run from the country to evade police arrest over criminal charges levelled against him by the police in Kogi State, the Kogi West senator has described the allegation as concocted lies and grand ploy by the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello to eliminate him in connivance with the police.
Melaye in a press release he signed and issued in Abuja on Sunday said it is unfortunate that a publicly funded institution like the Nigeria Police could take side in the political crisis rocking Kogi State and succumb to plans by Bello to get him arrested for the purpose of getting him eliminated.
“Last Monday’s stage-managed parade of crime suspects in Lokoja by the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr Jimoh Moshood, where a suspect was tutored to implicate me is just a continuation and expansion of the Police attempt to have me arrested at all cost and ultimately kill me.
“The public will recall that on Thursday, March 1, 2018 when the Federal Government arraigned me for allegedly given “false information” to the Police in a case of failed assassination plot against me, at the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, SARS operatives from Kogi State Police Command laid siege on the court premises in order to prevent me from enjoying my bail with the intention to kidnap me to Lokoja to be poisoned, although it turned out to be another failed attempt on my life.
” It is worrisome that the Police Headquarters has got itself entangled in the Kogi political crisis and has taken side. It is however bizarre and unprecedented that the FPRO, Mr. Moshood, will have to travel to Lokoja last Monday in order to act a script written by Governor Bello. A discerning mind will ask that, how many times has Mr. Moshood travel to Sokoto, Enugu or Lagos to parade suspects on behalf of a Police Commissioner?
” It has become expedient for me to issue this statement to the public and to let you know that I have taken the matter up with the international community in order to report this undue intimidation and harassment,” he said.
Melaye said he would have ignored the antics of the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello and the Nigeria Police, which has openly take side in the Kogi political crisis, “save for the latest but coordinated lies in the garb of exclusive news by the notorious online blackmailer – SaharaReporter”
He denied fleeing the country as there was no reason doing so, leaving behind his family as the online paper wants Nigerians to believe.
“My attention was drawn to their lies this night, hence this public statement, lest the unsuspecting members of the public and my supporters believe the lies by Omoyele Sowore as directed by his new paymasters.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I have not received any court summon either in person or by proxy in my house or office for me to appear on March 28 as being insinuated by the Police regarding the latest allegation against me”, he stated.
He boldly said that no amount of intimidation, blackmail, arrests or threats will stop him from championing the cause of the masses.
