Melaye narrates his ordeal after escape from ‘assassins’

The senator representing Kogi West senatorial district at the National Assembly, Dino Melaye, on Sunday told the story of how he spent 11 hours on a tree to escape death from his attackers.

The explanation came following the controversies that trailed claims of his being kidnapped last week.

Senator Ben Bruce had on Thursday, quoting a relative of Senator Melaye, reported on his Twitter handle that the lawmaker from Kogi West had been kidnapped while on his way to Lokoja for his court case on Thursday.

Same day, Melaye’s counsel, Barrister Yemi Mohammed, who stood in for Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had told the trial magistrate, Suleyman Abdalah, in Kogi State, during the senator’s ongoing alleged gunrunning trial, that he was authoritatively informed that Melaye was attacked in Gwagwalada on Wednesday on his way home from court.

He had 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.”

However, after the Nigeria Police announced that it has commenced investigation into the alleged kidnap of Senator Dino Melaye, even as it has not been formally informed about the incident, Melaye later announced his escape from his attackers.

There were insinuations that the senator might have cooked-up his kidnap story.

But Melaye denied any frame up, saying that what happened to him on Thursday was beyond kidnapping as his attackers had wanted to assassinate him.

According to Melaye, he had left Abuja in the early morning of Thursday for Lokoja to attend a court case but that on getting to around Gwagwalada along the Abuja-Lokoja Road, he had observed that a Toyota Sienna car was trailing him.

The senator claimed thaf the car overtook his, blocked him and immediately the occupants of the car started to shoot at his vehicle.

He said that as soon as his attackers realised that his vehicle was bulletproof they alighted from their car and made an attempt to burn it.

“When I realised that they wanted to burn my vehicle, I quickly opened the car and ran into the bush. I had to run for my life. It was the grace of God that made me to escape. When I got into the bush, I climbed a tree and stayed there. While on the tree, I saw two of the policemen coming to look for me, but they didn’t know I was on the tree. I was in the bush for 11 hours.

READ ALSO: Police begins investigation into Melaye’s ‘kidnap’

“My brother that was in one of the vehicles didn’t know what happened, so he had to raise the alarm that I was kidnapped. He went to the Gwagwalada police station and reported the matter,” Melaye said.

Melaye, a critic of President Muhammadu Buhari was among the National Assembly members who last week Tuesday dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

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