Ben Murray Bruce, senator representing Bayelsa East senatorial district at the National Assembly, says Dino Melaye would have died if he did not force his way out of the police vehicle conveying him to a court in Lokoja, Kogi State, on Tuesday.
Bruce said Melaye was asthmatic, yet the police gassed him twice while in the vehicle, prompting him to force his way out.
Melaye, who had been declared wanted for alleged criminal conspiracy, was arrested on Wednesday, April 25, after he surrendered himself to the police. Two days earlier, Melaye was held briefly at the Abuja International Airport, on his way to Morocco for an official assignment, Immigration officials saying he had been placed on a ‘no flight’ list.
Following his arrest on Wednesday, Melaye was being taken to Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, purportedly to be arraigned in court, when he jumped out of the window of a moving police vehicle and escaped, according to Jimoh Moshood, PRO of the Nigerian Police Force.
Moshood said Melaye was later traced to a hospital in Abuja where he was rearrested, adding that he will be arraigned in court “without further delay”.
But Bruce, popularly referred to as ‘the common sense senator’, said Moshood’s account of the incident was far from the truth. According to him, Melaye literally escaped death.
“Just met with Dino Melaye. Very sad to hear what transpired. Dino is asthmatic, yet while in transit, the police gassed him & he could barely breathe. Second time they gassed him, he had to force his way out of the vehicle. Dino literally escaped death. SAD!” Bruce tweeted on Monday.
Just met with @dino_melaye. Very sad to hear what transpired. Dino is asthmatic, yet while in transit, the police gassed him & he could barely breathe. Second time they gassed him, he had to force his way out of the vehicle. Dino literally escaped death. SAD!
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) April 30, 2018
Bruce’s account of the incident appear to differ slightly from that of Gideon Ayodele, Melaye’s media aide, who issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the scene created on Tuesday was “a last resort by Senator Dino Melaye in order to foil attempt to kidnap him and kill him by agents of Kogi State governor in connivance with the police.”
Ayodele wondered why the police wanted to ferry Melaye back to Lokoja, despite a court order approving that his trial be held at the federal high court in Abuja.
“The Senator believes they (the police) are doing the Kogi Governor’s (Yahaya Bello) bidding in order to assassinate him,” Ayodele wrote.
Though belonging to the same All Progress Congress (APC) Melaye and Bello can best be described as political foes.
Melaye is currently admitted at the National Hospital, Abuja, where he is being treated for injuries he sustained while trying to force his way out of police custody on Tuesday.