Nigeria: Who wants Dino Melaye out?
April 29 2018 By Abiodun Giwa
Senator Dino Melaye's recall process by Nigeria's Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, ran into a hitch on Saturday as there were not enough people to verify signatures for the recall. News reports showed clearly that Melaye floored whoever were the powers who wanted him ousted from the senate.
Some members of Melaye's constituency reportedly said their signatures were forged and that Melaye had adequately represented them in the senate.
News about Melaye's travail began unfolding on Monday morning, when he was reportedly arrested at the Abuja International Airport enroute Morocco on official assignment. He was released after few hours of arrest, but only to found his home in Abuja surrounded by police officers armed to the teeth on arrival home from the airport.
Melaye was reportedly arrested on Tuesday by the police after almost 12 hours standoff between him and the police. Believing that they got their captive, the police put Melaye in a van on a journey to his home state in Kogi for a court appearance in a criminal case or identification by.suspects in police custody who confessed to police that Melaye supplied them with money and arms.
On the way to Kogi State, Melaye reportedly jumped off the police van, while another version of an unconfirmed report said he was pushed out of the van, and he ended up in a hospital bed at the intensive care unit for a broken vertebrate. Nonetheless, news reports say the police handcuffed Melaye to his hospital bed, to foil another escape bid by the senator, who had cried out few weeks ago that some undisclosed powers in Nigeria wanted him dead.
Another news report, according to the BBC, said Melaye's camp said he was pushed out of the van and that his escape bid was a plan was a plan to foil plans to convict him in public eyes. Meanwhile, Melaye was still in handcuff and on a hospital bed on Friday, when another news flash said a recall process began earlier against the senator was to be rounded off on Saturday with verification of signatures by constituents who wanted him ousted from the senate.
Many Nigerian newspapers that included Premium Times reported that the Nigeria's Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, announced that Melaye's recall process would continue. despite Melaye's incapacitation - and his younger brother, said to have aided the senator's escape bid thrown into jail for his alleged act by a court.
First, Melaye was accused of ineffectiveness as a senator and a recall process filed against him. Secondly, he was accused of having armed some people to fight for him and it was for this alleged crime the police said caused his arrest at the airport and the plan to get him to his state for identification by suspected criminals, who the police said had mentioned the senator's name as the fellow who armed them.
Of course, another version of news reports said that Melaye's escape bid from the police truck is linked to a fear that for him to allow the police convey him to Kogi State will mean a journey to end of his life. Reports said that though the senator and the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, belong to the country's ruling party, but they are also political adversaries.
When the senator was arrested at the airport on his way to to Morocco, some of his colleagues in the senate cried foul against the arrest. And many senators, including the senate president were at the hospital on Wednesday but were disallowed from seeing the embattled senator. Consequently, the senate ordered the police inspector general to appear before it and explain the cause of the unfolding drama involving one of them. The police inspector general failed to appear, but instead sent one of his deputies, whom the senate refused to acknowledge his presence.
It is crystally clear it is not the people in Melaye's constituency who wants him out based on the power game that has unfolded. But that it is manifest some yet undisclosed strong men in the Nigerian power game want him out alive or dead. It is also obvious Melaye belongs to the Olusola Saraki power group. He was one of the senators who stood behind the senate president, when the powers in the ruling party put the senate president on the burning stove. What is unknown is the power group that Governor Bello, Melaye's reported adversary, belongs. Some people are erroneously speaking about Melaye's flamboyant lifestyle and controversy as a senator, as if they are crimes punishable under the Constitution..
Though, Melaye has survived the long knife with INEC's announcement of the failure to oust him from the senate, the drama of last one week shows that Nigeria is still politically in the forest of million demons.
Some members of Melaye's constituency reportedly said their signatures were forged and that Melaye had adequately represented them in the senate.
News about Melaye's travail began unfolding on Monday morning, when he was reportedly arrested at the Abuja International Airport enroute Morocco on official assignment. He was released after few hours of arrest, but only to found his home in Abuja surrounded by police officers armed to the teeth on arrival home from the airport.
Melaye was reportedly arrested on Tuesday by the police after almost 12 hours standoff between him and the police. Believing that they got their captive, the police put Melaye in a van on a journey to his home state in Kogi for a court appearance in a criminal case or identification by.suspects in police custody who confessed to police that Melaye supplied them with money and arms.
On the way to Kogi State, Melaye reportedly jumped off the police van, while another version of an unconfirmed report said he was pushed out of the van, and he ended up in a hospital bed at the intensive care unit for a broken vertebrate. Nonetheless, news reports say the police handcuffed Melaye to his hospital bed, to foil another escape bid by the senator, who had cried out few weeks ago that some undisclosed powers in Nigeria wanted him dead.
Another news report, according to the BBC, said Melaye's camp said he was pushed out of the van and that his escape bid was a plan was a plan to foil plans to convict him in public eyes. Meanwhile, Melaye was still in handcuff and on a hospital bed on Friday, when another news flash said a recall process began earlier against the senator was to be rounded off on Saturday with verification of signatures by constituents who wanted him ousted from the senate.
Many Nigerian newspapers that included Premium Times reported that the Nigeria's Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, announced that Melaye's recall process would continue. despite Melaye's incapacitation - and his younger brother, said to have aided the senator's escape bid thrown into jail for his alleged act by a court.
First, Melaye was accused of ineffectiveness as a senator and a recall process filed against him. Secondly, he was accused of having armed some people to fight for him and it was for this alleged crime the police said caused his arrest at the airport and the plan to get him to his state for identification by suspected criminals, who the police said had mentioned the senator's name as the fellow who armed them.
Of course, another version of news reports said that Melaye's escape bid from the police truck is linked to a fear that for him to allow the police convey him to Kogi State will mean a journey to end of his life. Reports said that though the senator and the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, belong to the country's ruling party, but they are also political adversaries.
When the senator was arrested at the airport on his way to to Morocco, some of his colleagues in the senate cried foul against the arrest. And many senators, including the senate president were at the hospital on Wednesday but were disallowed from seeing the embattled senator. Consequently, the senate ordered the police inspector general to appear before it and explain the cause of the unfolding drama involving one of them. The police inspector general failed to appear, but instead sent one of his deputies, whom the senate refused to acknowledge his presence.
It is crystally clear it is not the people in Melaye's constituency who wants him out based on the power game that has unfolded. But that it is manifest some yet undisclosed strong men in the Nigerian power game want him out alive or dead. It is also obvious Melaye belongs to the Olusola Saraki power group. He was one of the senators who stood behind the senate president, when the powers in the ruling party put the senate president on the burning stove. What is unknown is the power group that Governor Bello, Melaye's reported adversary, belongs. Some people are erroneously speaking about Melaye's flamboyant lifestyle and controversy as a senator, as if they are crimes punishable under the Constitution..
Though, Melaye has survived the long knife with INEC's announcement of the failure to oust him from the senate, the drama of last one week shows that Nigeria is still politically in the forest of million demons.
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