Senator Dino Melaye
The police have re-arrested Senator Dino Melaye from Zankli Hospital in Abuja where he was said to be receiving medical attention. The senator was said to have jumped out of a police vehicle conveying him to Kogi State with the aid of thugs suspected to be his supporters. The thugs had blocked the police vehicle and in the process, Melaye jumped out and got himself by the police injured.
The senator was conveyed to the hospital for medical attention. He was later re-arrested after his condition was stabilized by the doctors. He was moved to National Hospital also in Abuja. Police said he would be arraigned soon.
A terse statement by the police authority read:
“At about 1200Hrs of today Sen. Dino Melaye while in lawful custody of the Nigeria Police Force personnel and being taken for arraignment in Federal High Court Lokoja from Abuja, escaped from lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in Two (2) Toyota Hilux Vehicles blocked the Police vehicle conveying Senator Dino Melaye around Area 1 Round About, Abuja and in the process the Senator jumped out of the Police vehicle through the window and was rescued from the Police men by hoodlums and miscreants to an unknown destination.
“The Police team re-enforced and trailed Senator Dino Melaye to Zankli Hospital, Abuja where he was re-arrested. The Senator would be arraigned in court without further delay.
“ Meanwhile, one of the Toyota Hilux vehicles used by the hoodlums and miscreants in aiding the escape of the Senator has been recovered by the Police investigation team.
The Inspector General of Police has therefore directed a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the rescue and escape of Senator Dino Melaye from lawful custody”, a statement signed by ACP Jimoh Moshood, Force Public Relations Officer, Force Headquarters, Abuja said.
Earlier, Mr Gideon Ayodele, the Special Adviser (Media) to the embattled senator said the lawmaker never evaded arrest by the police.
Ayodele in statement in Abuja on Tuesday said: “for the avoidance of doubt, Sen. Melaye had never evaded police invitation before now because there was none extended to him in the first place.
“Rather, what the Police Force Public Relations Officer Mr Jimoh Moshood had been doing was to summon the senator through media briefings, a practice unconventional.”
But a statement earlier on Tuesday quoted the police as saying that Melaye as law-abiding citizen voluntarily submitted himself to operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) who laid siege to his private residence since around 3.35 p.m. of Monday, April 23, 2018.
The statement added that “he (Melaye), along with his lawyers and personal aides, were driven in his private car to the SARS office in Guzape district of Abuja, among numerous police vehicles earlier deployed to his house.
“With the media hype the whole saga generated especially his unwarranted travails in the hands of Immigration officials at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on Monday and the attendant but dramatic police siege to his private residence thereafter, it became necessary for Melaye to end the drama, hence his choice to appear before the police.”
Melaye’s aide said “we are constrained to make the record straight sequel to avalanche of calls by well-meaning Nigerians and supporters.
