The police have paraded two men they claimed were members of an armed gang working for Kogi West Sen. Dino Melaye whom an Abuja high court just ordered to go and face a recall initiated by his constituency.
The gunmen were arrested two weeks ago, and their confession led to an attempt by the SARS officers of the Abuja police command to bust Melaye right inside another court where he just got N100,000 in bail for yet another criminal offence brought against him:a perjury.
The senator had to first lie low on the court premises–but later tip-toed out another way–as the police laid an ambush for him following his role in the funding and arming of the group.
In an official statement on Monday, police spokesperson ACP Jimoh Moshood said the suspects, identified as Kabiru Saidu, 31, and Nuru Salisu, 25, were paraded on Monday in Lokoja, Kogi’s capital.
Moshood said detectives arrested the suspects with a cache of arms that included AK-47 rifles and pump action firearms on January 19, after a hours-long fire-fight with the police in Ogojueje, Dekina LGA, Kogi.
According to the spolesperson,the suspects confessed during interrogations that the senator armed them with one AK-47 rifle, two pump action guns and N430,000 cash.
“The suspects further confessed that” Mr. Melaye “told him that they should start working for” him “as his political thugs and they should recruit and train more thugs to work for him in preparation toward 2019 general election to enable him ( Dino Melaye ) challenge his political opponents and disorganise Kogi State,” the police said.
They also “confessed to various criminal roles they played in the commission of several kidnappings and armed robbery in different towns across Kogi State and its environs”.
The two adding had been on police wanted list for a couple of years.
Also named in their confession is Monammed Audu, the son of the late former governor of the stete.
Saidu confessed that Audu introduced him to Melaye.
Audu and Melaye were identified in a leaked audio detailing how to frame a Kogi official in an assassination attempt on the senator last December.
Following the interrogations, the police said they wrote to Senate President Bukola Saraki on March 2 to release Melaye for questioning by the police in Kogi–but Melaye frustrated the efforts.
Melaye, many Nigerian believe, is a loyalist to Saraki.
Saraki’s office said the Senate president responded, according to a source who spoke with Premium Times.
The content of Saraki’s letter is not known yet.
But the police decision to go public with the allegations–after petitioning the Senate president, in addition to about two months of manhunts for the suspects and their sponsor–reveals that tougher times await Melaye.
The police have filed criminal conspiracy charges against Messrs Melaye and Audu at a state high court in Lokoja, the state capital.
A Twitter-happy Melaye has gpne on social media to dismiss all the allegations.
“Fabricated lies by Kogi State Govt and the police will fail, ” Melaye said in a post on Twitter after the news hit the media.
“It’s utterly laughable and preposterous. It’s a sign of desperation.”
Melaye and Kogi Gov. Bello Yahaya have been in cold war since 2016–over the party srructure in the state.
The senator has inisisted Yahaya is manipulating the police to persecute him.
“No amount of lies and blackmail will detract my attention from speaking the truth and defending it,” he said.
Gov. Yahaya too has denied involvement in any of the senator’s ordeals, saying Melaye’s past bad deeds are only catching up with the senator.
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