I have no reason to flee my country, says Melaye

The embattled senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, Dino Melaye, has once again denied claims by an online publication that he had fled the country to evade Police arrest over allegation of gun running, for which he was declared wanted.

Melaye, in a statement, yesterday, described the report as antics to cause serious disharmony in the senate and among united majority senators, who are resolute in defending democracy and its institutions, no matter whose ox is gored.

He again accused the state governor, Yahaya Bello, and the Nigerian Police of openly taking sides in the state political crisis, adding: “For the records, I did not flee Nigeria and have no reason to flee my country, leaving behind my family, as the online paper wants Nigerians to believe.

“My attention was drawn to their lies on Thursday night; hence this public statement, lest the unsuspecting members of the public and my supporters believe the lies.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I have not received any court summon, either in person or by proxy in my house or office, for me to appear on March 28, as being insinuated by the Police, regarding the latest allegation against me,” he said.

The senator lamented that last Monday’s “stage-managed” parade of crime suspects in Lokoja by the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, where a suspect was “tutored” to implicate him, was a continuation and expansion of the Police attempt to have him arrested at all cost and ultimately kill him.

He said: “The public will recall that on Thursday, March 1, when the federal government arraigned me for allegedly given “false information” to the Police in a case of failed assassination plot against me, at the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, SARS operatives from Kogi State Police Command laid siege on the court premises in order to prevent me from enjoying my bail, with the intention to kidnap me to Lokoja to be poisoned, although it turned out to be another failed attempt on my life.