Politics
GUNRUNNING: More worries as ‘abducted’ Melaye fails to appear in court
The disappearance of Senator Dino Melaye got more troubling on Thursday as the lawmaker failed to show up in court for his alleged gunrunning trial.
Melaye, who is being tried along two others in a court in Kogi State, was reported to have been kidnapped by Senator Ben Bruce on Thursday.
“I have just been informed by Moses Melaye, @dino melaye’s brother, that Dino has been abducted by unknown persons in a Toyota Sienna that blocked their car and overpowered them on their way to Kogi to answer to Dino’s court case. Lets be on the watch out. Will keep you updated,” Bruce had claimed in a post on his official Twitter handle.
When Melaye’s gunrunning matter came up in court on Thursday, his counsel, Barrister Yemi Mohammed, who stood in for Mike Ozekhome (SAN), explained to the trial magistrate, Suleyman Abdalah, that he was authoritatively informed that Melaye was attacked in Gwagwalada on Wednesday on his way home from court.
He said, “I learnt that he was attacked yesterday in Gwagwalada on his way home from the court. Up till now, I have not been able to reach him. I don’t know where he is at the moment.”
He also told the trial magistrate that the prosecution counsel was not ready to open the case due to reasons “best known to them.”
Officer in charge of Police prosecution, Theophilus Oteme, responding, told the court that the prosecuting counsel had an emergency yesterday, a reason according to him, that made it “extremely difficult for him to appear in court.”
READ ALSO: Sen Dino Melaye kidnapped
He then prayed that the matter be adjourned till September 23, a request the trial magistrate frowned at, saying that “it contravened administration of criminal justice law of Kogi State as amended.”
Subsequently, the trial judge adjourned the matter till August 9 for commencement of trial.
Melaye has remained a fierce critics of President Muhammadu Buhari government and was one of the leading senators who dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently.
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