Sen. Melaye agrees to submit self to police, but with a caveat

Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye has said that he is ready to submit himself for investigation, but not to Kogi State police command.

The embattled lawmaker, stated this in a letter to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, where he called on the police boss to intervene in the rough relationship he is having with officers of the force.

In a five-page letter written by his counsel, Rickey Tarfa, Melaye avowed his readiness to submit himself to the police from Abuja for investigation but never to police officers from not Kogi State.

According to the senator, police officers in Kogi state were already compromised and were controlled by the state governor, Yayaha Bello.

He went further to claim that the move by police officers to arrest him at the FCT High Court on March 1, was prove that there was already a plot by a compromised set of policemen to abduct and murder him.

Melaye was recently accused of being the one arming and giving financial support to a two-gang paraded in Kogi State by the police.

But the senator, who had since denied the allegations, is claiming that it is being masterminded by Bello and that he wants to use police in Kogi to achieve his alleged sinister plot against him.

The letter read, “Our client told us that from information made available to him by his supporters, the intention was to abduct him and whisk him to Kogi State where he would be at the complete mercy of the governor and where plans had been perfected and were being implemented to frame him on spurious charges, arrest and detain him, and then murder him in prison while he is awaiting trial.”

“It is worthy of note that our client has severally stated in the media that he is aware of this nefarious plan and the involvement of Kogi State Police Command in implementing the same. The sheer number of armed policemen and security personnel deployed from Kogi State on 1st March 2018 to abduct our client from the FCT High Court premises gives credence to our client’s fears. Our client was however lucky not to be noticed by the policemen laying siege, as he left the court premises.

“Sir, as the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we urge that you intervene in the circumstances. It is obvious to our client that there is no plausible reason for him to believe that his personal safety is guaranteed in the hands of Kogi State Police Command.”

Although the letter revealed that the police exchanged correspondences with the National Assembly over an invitation to Mr. Melaye, the senator however argued that his appearance in Kogi State will cause ”grave personal danger and may also lead to a breakdown of law and order, going by the antecedents of the governor”.

Melaye added that the fear of a “breakdown of law and order” is the reason he would not want to submit himself for probe to Kogi police and not because he was averse to being probed.

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“Sir, we urge for your urgent intervention in this matter. As we have stated, our client, convinced of his innocence is ready to submit himself for investigation and to answer any charge against his person but by police officers of whose neutrality he is confident in this matter, police officers from Abuja.

“Our client being a prominent serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Chairman, Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Publicity and member of several other senate committees, will not and cannot run from justice, but balks at being delivered directly into the hands of people who have made public threats against his person.

“We anxiously await your intervention sir, to secure the life of our client, and to avoid any breakdown of law and order,” the letter added.

 

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