- Hospitalised after interrogation
The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has said Senator Dino Melaye was on Friday taken to hospital in Abuja after he submitted himself, and was detained by police investigators.
A statement from Police spokesman DCP Jimoh Moshood said Melaye is in stable condition and investigation into the case of culpable homicide against him is ongoing.
Moshood said: “Wanted by the Police for criminal conspiracy and attempted culpable homicide, committed on 19th July, 2018, when Senator Dino Melaye and his armed thugs attacked Police personnel, shot and wounded SGT Danjuma Saliu on stop-and-search duty along Aiyetoro Gbede, Mopa Road in Kogi State has surrendered to the Police Investigation Team on wait at his residence, today, 4th January, 2019 at about 1500hrs.”
He said Sgt. Saliu is yet to recover from the gunshot injury he sustained during the attack and still under intensive medical care in the hospital.
Moshood said he is expected to answer to a case of Criminal Conspiracy and Attempted Culpable Homicide against him under investigation in the Kogi State Police Command.
Senator Melaye has surrendered himself to the police following one week of police siege at his Maitama residence.
Melaye, it was learnt, had to surrender to the police following the intervention of some of his colleagues. The police said the Kogi senator has been resisting arrest, hence their continued siege on his residence.
It was also gathered that the senator, who hid himself in the house, was facing threats to his life as the police had cut power supply to the residence for over week, with all the entrances to the main building locked up.
The senator had on Friday last week told journalists via telephone that he was outside Abuja when the police stormed his residence.
However, the senator yesterday emerged from the same house where the police had been laying siege for one week. He was seen supported by some aides and in company of senators Ben Murray-Bruce (PDP, Bayelsa) and Atai Aidoko (PDP, Kogi) as well as Rep Boma Goodhead (PDP, Rivers)
The senator, who represents Kogi West Senatorial District, was said to have reported himself at the Force Headquarters, Abuja at about 4pm yesterday.
He went to the Force Headquarters to meet with the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, but it was learnt that he couldn’t meet the police chief as the IGP was said to be in a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa.
The senator was said to have proceeded to the headquarters of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) along with his colleagues and lawyers.
Daily Trust Saturday recalls that some policemen had been deployed to Melaye’s residence since last Friday to arrest him, but the senator was nowhere to be found.
The police said they were looking for Melaye in connection with a case of culpable homicide, an allegation he denied.
It was learnt Melaye was being detained and interrogated by police investigators at the SARS office in Guzape, Abuja over his alleged involvement in an attempted murder of a police man. He was still there at the time of filing this report at about 7.pm.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has condemned the method adopted by the Nigerian Police in laying siege in the house of Senator Melaye.
In a statement signed by the Commission’s Director, Corporate Affairs and External Linkages, Lambert Oparah, the Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu, faulted the methodology adopted by the Police in effecting the arrest of Senator Melaye stressing that the right to freedom of movement of occupants of the house have been violated consequentially.
