Forum, Kogi women disagree over Melaye, Tinubu face-off

A group, Forum for Actualisation of Real Democracy (FARD) has described the comments of Senator Dino Melaye, describing fellow Senator Ajayi Boroffice as “an absentee senator” as condemnable.

The group said, “The Kogi West Senator deliberately left the real issue to malign his Ondo State counterpart.”

Boroffice, who represents Ondo North in the upper chamber had called for caution on the part of Melaye in the widely reported altercation between him and Senator Oluremi Tinubu.

But at a press conference addressed by Melaye to state his own side of the story, he said Boroffice was not in the chambers when the arguments took place and that he had not attended sessions for the past two months.

Meanwhile, a group of Kogi women has demanded that Mrs. Tinubu should apologise to Melaye for allegedly calling him a dog and thug.

A statement signed by the FARD’s Coordinator, Aturu Olusola and the Secretary, Dayo Bello said “We read with surprise the premise of Melaye’s comments to Senator Boroffice’s reaction to his behavior on the floor of Senate.

“He completely ignored the substance of Boroffice’s concern and was pursuing the shadow. His behavior which was unbecoming of a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is nothing but shameful.”

The group which described Boroffice as “distinguished in the real sense of the word,” stated further that the Kogi Senator “should go and analyze the attendance register at the Senate sessions and tell Nigerians again the number of days the Senate sat in the last two months and how many times Boroffice was absent.”

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Women Leader in Ekiti State, Mrs. Dupe Bakare, has condemned Melaye over the alleged verbal attack on Mrs. Tinubu, describing Melaye’s conduct as reprehensible and lacking in decorum.

In a statement in Ado-Ekiti, Bakare criticised Melaye in what she described as a show of shame, stressing that her group would “do everything within the purview of the law to resist and reject any form of molestation against women, no matter where the threat is coming from.”

Speaking in the same vein, Chairman of the APC in Benue State, Abba Yaro, demanded a public apology from Melaye to the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu saying, “An insult on the wife of the APC leader is an insult on the party itself.”

Yaro who spoke to The Guardian in Makurdi said: “It is unfortunate that a senator will condescends so low to using gutter language against colleagues at the red chamber. The Senate is a place of respected senior citizens and disciplined people with high integrity.”

In a press conference in Lokoja yesterday, the spokesperson of the Kogi women’s group, Fumilayo Olumodeji said as women they were disappointed in Mrs Tinubu, whom according to her holds the ace to speak for the women in the red chamber, “but has abdicated that onerous task for arrogance and pride.”

Speaking about Melaye, the women said, “We are proud of our Senator, we are in tune with his activities and we are strongly behind him. No amount of harassment, intimidation and threats can distract him from performing his legislative functions.”