The
senator representing Bayelsa East constituency at the Senate, Mr. Ben
Murray-Bruce, has said adduced reasons why Senator Dino Melaye jumped out of
the Police van.
In a tweet
on Monday, Murray-Bruce disclosed that he was in the hospital to see Melaye,
who represents Kogi West senatorial district at the Senate.
Murray-Bruce
expressed his concerns about the embattled senator’s travails, saying, “Very
sad to hear what transpired.”
He disclosed
that Mr. Melaye is asthmatic, but that during his encounter with policemen,
“the police gassed him and he could barely breathe.”
The
tear-gassing of the senator wasn’t a one-off thing, Murray-Bruce said, noting,
“Second time they gassed him” (and) “he had to force his way out of the
vehicle.”
“Dino
literally escaped death,” Murray-Bruce said.
The
incident led to Mr. Melaye’s eventual hospitalisation.
It may be
recalled that Senator Dino Melaye was arrested by immigration officers at the
Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on Monday, April 23, on his way to Morocco, but he
managed to escape from the security personnel.
But later
on the same day, policemen stormed his residence at Shanga Street, Maitama,
Abuja, where they kept a vigil in a bid to arrest him.
On Tuesday
morning, Melaye surrendered to the security operatives, who drove him away in a
white Hiace bus followed by three other vehicles to the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad facility at Guzape, Abuja.
Sources
said Melaye surrendered to the police after some of his senator friends
received assurances from the police authorities that he would not be taken to
Lokoja where he alleged he might be assassinated.
It was
gathered that Melaye, on suspecting that the police were taking him to Kogi
State, engaged the officers in the bus in a scuffle and managed to jump out of
the van after it was blocked by unidentified vehicles around 2.10pm. Murray-Bruce
noted that Melaye might have died if he had remained in the Police van.
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