Two Nabbed Criminals Name Melaye as Their Alleged Sponsor ...Melaye: Kogi govt trying to frame me
The Kogi State Police Command on Monday paraded two
suspected notorious political thugs with two AK 47 and five Pump Action guns
allegedly working for a lawmaker representing Kogi West senatorial district,
Senator Dino Melaye.
The two suspects paraded at the state Police
headquarters by the Police Force Headquarters Public Relation Officer Mr. Jimoh
Moshood in Lokoja are Kabiru Saidu aka Osama and Nuhu Salisu Aka (small).
According to him, they were arrested after a gun
battle with the police team which lasted for several hours on January 19,
2018.
Moshood told journalists that the two suspects,
upon interrogation, confessed that they were working as a political thug for
Senator Melaye.
The police spokesman said: "The gang leader,
Kabiru Saidu, was introduced to Melaye, and they met on airport road in Abuja
inside Melaye’s car in December 2017.
"The suspects further confessed that Senator
Melaye told him that they should start working for him as his political thugs
and they should recruit and train other thugs to work for him in preparation
toward 2019 general election; challenge his political opponents and disorganised
Kogi State."
Moshood alleged that the suspects confessed to the
police that Melaye handed over a bag containing one AK 47 rifle, two pump
action guns and the sum of N430, 000 to share with his boy.
He further stated that consequent upon the
indictment and criminal confession of the principal suspect, Saidu, the police
wrote to the Senate requesting Melaye to report to the Kogi State police
command to answer questions to criminal offences levelled against him to enable
the police carry out a discreet investigation into the confession of the
principal suspect but the lawmaker refused to honour the police invitation.
The police also said a case of criminal conspiracy
and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms has been filed against the two
suspects at the Federal High Court in Lokoja, including Senator Dino
Melaye.
Weapons recovered from the two suspects include two
AK 47, five Pump Action guns and charms.
Meanwhile, Senator Melaye in his reaction to the
allegations said it was a framed up and
an orchestrated attempt by the state government to discredit him. The senator said he had never seen the
suspects in his life and did not have anything to do with them.
Melaye said the move was an attempt by the Kogi State
Government to shut him up and prevent him from speaking the truth about
governance in the state.
He added that he contested and won election for the
House of Representatives and Senate without working with political thugs,
saying the plan had been exposed about six weeks ago.
According to the outspoken lawmaker, "This is
an attempt to shut me up and stop me from speaking the truth, but they have
failed; it is an orchestrated lie by the state governor and the police. It has
been tweeted about six weeks ago that they wanted to set me up because I got an
intelligence report from the state Government House when they met to set me up.
"You can see the conflicting statements by the
criminals. I heard that one said I gave two AK47 and pump action, while the
other said I gave them only one rifle and that I also gave them N430,000 to
train militia, and that I met them at airport road in December 2017 but they
didn't give a date and time.
"I don't know anybody, and I have not involved
myself with any thugs since I became member of House of Representatives and Senate.
If this is an attempt to shut me up, they have failed.”
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