Nigerians and the rest of the world have been treated to a most bizarre and undesirable public drama involving the police and a serving federal legislator, Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West Senatorial District of Kogi State). The entire world saw how a Nigerian senator sat in the dust at the mercy of suspicious operatives who were supposed to protect him, shouting for help. He had to scream and jump out of a moving police van to rescue himself from them until ordinary sympathetic citizens built a hedge around him to deliver him from what some reports said his abductors (security personnel).
Last Monday, the senator was arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, by men and officers of the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) on alleged order from “above” and was later left to go. The senator who was on his way to Morocco on a Federal Government-sponsored official trip called off his trip as a result of the disruption that threatened his life.
It will be recalled that Senator Melaye and Alhaji Mohammed Audu, the son of the late Price Abubakar Audu and former governor of Kogi State were accused of criminal conspiracy and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms and charged to court by the Nigeria Police Force at Federal High Court Lokoja on 16th March, 2018.
This followed the arrest and confession of three suspects who alleged that Audu introduced the leader of the gang to Senator Melaye who gave weapons and money to the gang leader to recruit and train thugs for him ahead of the 2019 for the purpose of causing violence in Kogi State. Then there was the saga of escape from jail by the suspects and re-arrest.
His residence in Maitama Abuja was later taken over by police troops. The gate was barricaded. None went in and none went out. He later came out and handed himself over to the police in company of his lawyer and aides at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Guzape District, escorted of course by heavily armed operatives.
We cannot but queue right behind the position of the concerns raised by Citizens Media and Development Network (CIMEDEN), a pro-democracy, development and public policy communications civil society organization. In its reaction to this unsavoury and shameful development, it stated that it was unfair, suspicious and frightening to ill-treat a serving senator who has willingly surrendered himself to the police for a crime that is yet to be decided by the court as if he were a common criminal.
According to the group, it is “a frightening violation of the fundamental human rights of Senator Dino Melaye and a threat to democratic practice in Nigeria. The circumstances surrounding Senator Dino Melaye’s arrest and ordeal are curious, suspicious and questionable. He submitted himself in the company of his lawyers and personal aides, escorted by stern-looking operatives.
“Here is a senior Nigerian, a Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic accused by the security agency of a criminal offence, but instead of giving him fair hearing, he was declared wanted by the Police and allegedly placed on the wanted list of INTERPOL. This however proved to be false and a ruse. He was supposed to be driven to the court in Abuja but the SARS’ van rather was speeding off heading to Lokoja according to reports. Then the week Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to start his Senatorial withdrawal process, he was arrested and harassed by the Police. The political undertone in the ordeal of the Senator is incontrovertible. This is very shameful development.
“It is worrisome that the Police authorities have yet to show the warrant of arrest obtained from the court before it forcefully effected the arrest of the Senator. Where is the rule of law in this country?” It concluded that Nigerian democracy is under threat.
From all indications, the country is sitting a time bomb. The dignity of human life has been reduced to nothing because of daily bloodshed. Human rights records have nosedived. There is an absence of the rule of law, executive constitutional breaches and nothing happens. If a senator can be so treated like a common thief, then all hope is lost for the ordinary citizens. Melaye must be allowed to go and defend himself.
We call for an urgent need to salvage this country from total collapse of law and order. Time is running for President Muhammadu Buhari. He needs to rise up and stop the country’s drift towards anarchy.
