Dino Melaye: Why senators keep mum days after resumption
might linger as Senators kept mum two days after resumption from a
44-day New Year break.
Usually, lawmakers have privileges of raising a "point of order" in
consonance with Senate rules on issues considered personal,
particularly as it affects their colleagues.
The circumstances with which the Kogi lawmaker found himself bothers
on order 42 and 52 of the rules guiding the Senate, but, neither was a
point of order raised when the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki
presided over Wednesday's plenary nor during Thursday's sitting which
was presided by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.
Dino Melaye representing Kogi West Senatorial District and Chairman,
Senate Committee on FCT surrendered to the Police after eight days
siege to his residence in Maitama, Abuja over attempted culpable
homicide against a Police Seargent in July 2018 in his Senatorial
district of Kogi State.
DAILY POST recalls that upon his surrender on the 4th of January,
2019, he fainted and was taken to the Police hospital in Abuja by the
Police who kept vigil at his residence.
Few days after, he was relocated to the DSS hospital facilities along
Airport Road in Abuja, but resisted medical attention and in protest,
he laid on bare floor of the hospital. Though doctors certified him
fit to stand trial in Lokoja, Kogi State, Dino insisted that he has
not recuperating till date.
When Dino was taken to the Police hospital, it was Senator Matthew
Urhogide representing Edo and Chairman, Senate Committee on Public
Accounts that were spotted around him.
Dino Melaye, believed to be a close confidant of the Senate President,
would have spoken out even, if premeditated, had this incident
happened to another colleague of his.
DAILY POST's effort to have some Senators speak on the matter failed
as they would not want to say anything. But a PDP Senator from the
North anonymously confided in our correspondent that, Dino's case was
becoming an embarrassment to the 8th Senate.
"In as much as you will not quote my name, I want to say that there
should be an end to Dino dragging us in the mud.
"He allows himself to be treated in the most undignified manner. As a
Senator, he should have comported himself with respect. Why feign
sickness?
"Each time he had close shave with the Police, he would drag the upper
chamber into the matter. But at a point, there must be a line to when
we are serious and when we are not", he said.
When prodded by us whether Dino Melaye was going through persecution
as a result of opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress,
particularly the presidency, he said: "I don't want to prejudice the
matter. If he had honoured Police invitation, he could not have been
detained this long. People like us would have accused the government
of abusing his fundamental human rights by now."
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