Dino Melaye
Police
Dino Melaye
Police Fire Gunshots, Teargas in Dino Melaye’s
Residence- Lawyer
NIGERIA IN THE THROES OF ANARCHY: A PRESS STATEMENT
BY MIKE OZEKHOME’S CHAMBERS (LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND NOTARIES
PUBLIC) ON THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL SIEGE LAID BY THE NIGERIAN POLICE
ON SENATOR DINO MELAYE’S HOUSE, AT NO 11
SANGHA STREET MAITAMA, ABUJA.
On Friday, the 28th of December, 2018, a team of plain-clothed
policemen, stormed Senator Dino Melaye’s house at No 11 Sangha
Street, Maitama, Abuja, and barricaded the entire street before
eventually forcefully gaining entry into his compound. The said
plain-clothed policemen proceeded to beat up Melaye’s security whom
they immediately handcuffed. They also arrested the cook and other
domestic staff in Senator Dino’s residence.
His relatives approached the head of the said security to find
out why they were treating Dino, a serving Senator of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria in such high-handed and disdainful manner. The
head of the rampaging police while declining any specific answer,
told Dino’s relatives that they came from the Commissioner of
Police FCT,on whose instructions, they were acting. Dino Melaye’s
brothers demanded to see the warrant of arrest if they had any, but
the police refused to show any such warrant. The Police also
declined to disclose the reason why they are laying siege on the
house of a sitting Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Nigeria Police led by the Commissioner of Police FCT,
proceeded to do the unthinkable; they disconnected electricity
supply to the premises of Senator Dino Melaye, thereby putting his
life and health in grave danger. They have also disconnected water
supply to his home thus denying him access to water, a concomitant
to the basic constitutional right guaranteed by section 33 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as altered.
Senator Dino Melaye has been without water and food, for the past
72 hours and counting as the said policemen, have blocked the gate,
denying family members and his friend’s access to him. Senator Dino
Melaye is a known asthmatic person and has been denied access to
his medications and personal physicians for the past 72 hours and
counting.
The police are now firing several gunshots within Senator Dino
Melaye’s compound and have now started shooting canisters of tear
gas through the windows of his house.
It would be recalled that Senator Dino Melaye, had on the 24th
of December 2018, cried out to the world, that he had received
credible information that there was a grand plan by the police,
sponsored by Yahaya Bello, the Governor of Kogi State, to arrest
him and inject him with lethal substances to terminate his life. It
would also be recalled that Senator Dino Melaye, who has since
parted ways with his earlier party, the ruling APC, has been quite
vociferous in the condemnation of the poor performance of the
Federal Government and his state government under Yahaya Belo.
Consequent upon this, he has received fusillades of politically
motivated attacks on his life and political career by his traducers
using the instrumentality of the Nigeria Police and their
operatives.
Members of the public would also recall how Senator Dino Melaye
had personally narrated his ordeal on Thursday, the 19th day of
July, 2018, that whilst he was returning to his hometown, around
Iya junction, Ayetoro Gbede, Ijumu LGA, Kogi State, in a convoy of
over twenty vehicles, after the commissioning of his constituency
projects, in Kogi West Senatorial District, he was attacked by
armed Policemen and his vehicle shot at sporadically by the armed
policemen who attacked him.
Our Chambers had written a petition to the IGP, intimating him
of the premeditated violent attack on Melaye. Till date, we have
not received any response to the said petition.
Senator Melaye had also informed our Chambers, that recently, on
the 12th of October 2018, the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State,
sent armed policemen who invaded his country home in Kogi State,
looking for him. He believes the invasion was targeted at
assassinating him, over his political views. It was only when the
villagers raised the alarm that the said armed policemen, fled.
Senator Dino Melaye then petitioned The President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, and copied the said petition to several
International Organizations. And again, no response was received in
respect of this petition till date.
Senator Melaye informed us, that his party, the People’s
Democratic Party, had scheduled its party campaign in Kogi State,
for the 5th of January, 2019.
Senator Dino Melaye who is also contesting for the Senatorial
slot of the Kogi West, Senatorial District, is scheduled to be one
of the keynote speakers on that day. Senator Dino Melaye verily
believes that the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, who has always
seen him as a palpable political threat, is doing everything
possible, including the use of the publicly financed Nigerian
Police apparatchik, to harass, intimidate, silence, possibly kill
him, thereby ultimately frustrating his senatorial ambition.
Senator Dino Melaye recalls how the said Kogi State, Governor,
in his desperate attempts to undo him politically, had
stage-managed his botched recall from the Senate, which process
failed ignominiously even while he was chained to a hospital bed by
the same Nigeria Police. The Nigeria Police had since April 2018,
withdrawn Senator Dino Melaye’s police security attached to him.
The Nigerian Police had refused all requests, to restore Dino
Melaye’s security, despite several letters written to them,
including letters from the Senate President and the Clerk of the
National Assembly.
The same Nigerian Police, have refused to release Senator Dino
Melaye’s International Passports, which is in their
custody,notwithstanding a clear order of court directing them to
release same forthwith. Our Chambers had written several letters to
the Inspector General of Police, urging it, to obey the subsisting
court order, but the IGP, had consistently flouted the said court
order. Till date, Dino’s passports are illegally and wrongfully
detained by the same police, notwithstanding the subsisting court
order, and several letters from our chambers urging them to release
same.
Senator Dino Melaye has was charged in different hierarchies of
the Nigerian court, within five months, over six times, over
trumped-up charges. Some of these frivolous charges have either
been withdrawn by the police, or struck out by the court.
It is highly condemnable that the recent attacks on Senator
Melaye’s life appear obviously state-sponsored by his political
enemies using the instrumentality of a willing police, to prevent
him from campaigning and thus frustrate his political ambition of
returning to the Senate.
The entire conduct of the Nigeria Police Force thus far leaves
much to be desired. It is compromised, despicable, selective,
arbitrary and amounts to a brazen abuse of office and repression of
a Nigerian citizen, Senator Dino Melaye, whose fundamental rights,
they have serially trampled upon. The life of Senator Dino Melaye
is now in grave danger.
The last time we checked, Nigeria is supposed to be operating a
constitutional democracy, and not fascism or under a police state.
This is no time for a “golden silence” by Mr President, who is the
ultimate supervisor of the Nigerian Police Force under sections 214
and 215 of the 1999 Constitution.
This is a humble sos, sir. Kindly treat sir, with promptitude and
the urgency of now.
Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN,OFR,FCIArb,Ph.D.
Chief Counsel/Head of Chambers