THE senator representing Kogi west senatorial district, Dino Melaye, on Tuesday, accused the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, of conniving with the state police command to stop him from campaigning for his re-election into the Senate.
He also said the state government was aware that the All Progressives Congress (APC) could not win any free and fair election in the State, adding that the present move by the government would fail.
But the governor in his reaction has urged Melaye to leave him and the state government out of his predicaments.
Speaking with newsmen over the invasion of his house in Ayetoro Gbede, Ijumu local government area of the State, the senator regretted that the state police command was only being economical with the truth over the invasion, saying the invasion was to attempt on his life.
Melaye said he had asked the force headquarters in Abuja to take over the investigation into the event of July 19, 2018, when the police attacked him along Ayetoro-Gbede-Isanlu road during the commissioning of his constituency projects.
He said it was funny that men of the command that attacked him were now accusing him of shooting a policeman, saying he would not get justice from the state police command.
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Melaye, who is seeking a re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, said the governor was apprehensive and planned to ensure that he was not on the ground to campaign for the 2019 general election.
He noted that the plan of the governor was to keep him away from the State so that he will not be able to campaign for his reelection.
Melaye said: “The governor wants me out of circulation, he doesn’t want me around to campaign for my reelection. Information reaching me is that he wants me to be arrested, arraigned me in a Kangaroo court, lock me up and then I wouldn’t be able to campaign.
“I have written the President, United Nations, UK embassy, CJN, AU, ECOWAS, German, Canadian embassies. This is the fourth assassination attempt on my life.”
But Bello, who spoke through his Director General of Media and Publicity, Kingsley Fanwo, told the lawmaker to face his problems with the Nigerian Police and stop “hanging them on innocent people”, dismissing the allegation as “untrue, illogical and a desperate attempt by the sinking Senator to whip up sentiments.”
“We have decided to allow Dino Melaye sink alone. We are not prepared to sink with him. He can’t lean on the State Government to reawaken his dead political career.
“The cases between the Nigeria Police and Dino Melaye are well documented. None of them has anything to do with either the State Government or the Governor. Nigerians are used to such spurious allegations and blackmail for political gains.
“This is a Senator who said he stayed on a tree for eleven hours. This is a Senator who framed his own constituents on an assassination charge which was later thrown out by a competent court of law of jurisdiction.”
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