[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ithout any intention to discredit the prosecution, it is worthy of note that several activities of the police force have over the years made its integrity, as a security organization questionable.Due to its grave culture of corruption and excessive abuse of power, the Nigeria police force has a long way to go to regain the confidence of the Nigerian people.If someone like David Ugolor, front line civil/human rights activist could be messed up by some desperate and vicious powerful individuals using planted characters to distort the facts in the murder of his close friend, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde who was Personal Secretary to former Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, then the current ordeal confronting Senator Melaye should be a subject of public scrutiny.The erosion of public confidence in the force is unequivocally a self-inflicted injury that will continue to cast a dark shadow over its credibility.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials from its headquarters in the capital city of Abuja investigated and coordinated a petition allegedly compiled by the people of Kogi West Senatorial Districts, seeking the recall of Senator Dino Melaye from the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Specifically, INEC kept very busy and fumed excitedly over the recall saga that rocked the senatorial district which gave him his presently running mandate.
Only recently the immigration officials at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, acting on instructions from above swung into action, laid ambush and arrested Melaye who was billed for a trip to Morocco.
It was after he had been sufficiently embarrassed and prevented from taking that scheduled official journey to Morocco that he regained his freedom.
Shortly after the drama at the airport in Abuja, more trouble came the way of the Kogi State-born fire-spitting, out-spoken, fearless and controversial lawmaker when officers of the Nigeria Police Force trailed his movement and succeeded in arresting him.
Today, Melaye is on admission at the National Trauma Centre, Abuja, recovering from the injuries he sustained when he jumped out of the police vehicle conveying him to Lokoja, Koji State, to be arraigned for a criminal matter.
Melaye is not the only lawmaker from Kogi State, neither is he the only guy in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Then, why is the Nigeria Police Force furiously after him and the tempestuous political climate blowing menacingly over his head at home.
The point must be marshalled clearly here that we are not against Dino Melaye’s trial if the Nigeria Police can furnish adequate evidences to nail him on the tree of justice, neither do we care if the people of his Kogi West Senatorial District had genuinely generated sufficient number of signatories that could have recalled him from the Senate.
All said, relevant authorities overseeing Melaye’s current travail must allow transparency, fairness, and full blown spirit of rule of law to be brought to bear.
If his current ordeal is being orchestrated by those that hate his guts within the Senate and those that cannot withstand his towering popularity back home in Kogi State, then he will certainly come out triumphant and unscathed.
Not too long ago a petition was thrown into the National Assembly alleging that Melaye did not graduate properly from the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria.
As the ghost of the certificate scandal gripped the Senate like hurricane threatening to fling the lawmaker out of the hallowed chambers via the next available window, it took the physical appearance of the Vice-Chancellor of the Ivory Tower at the Senate before the matter was abandoned.
The Nigeria Police are presently unrelenting, trying to convince the Nigerian public that Senator Melaye sponsored a gang in Kogi State, armed it to perpetuate violence that resulted in the death of an individual during an unauthorized political gathering sometimes ago; that criminal suspects in the alleged murderous crime have confessed Senator Melaye as their patron.
Melaye has vehemently denied the grave allegation, went to an Abuja High Court that subsequently granted his prayers for the case to be brought to Abuja.
The next question is why was Melaye reluctant to go to Lokoja to face the criminal proceedings instituted against him, if his hands are clean? Perhaps he felt the law enforcement agents are compromised, given the way he is being dragged about today with special attention.
For instance the National Hospital, where Dino Melaye is being treated has been taken over by more than enough combat ready security personnel.
Without any intention to discredit the prosecution, it is worthy of note that several activities of the police force have over the years made its integrity, as a security organization questionable.
Due to its grave culture of corruption and excessive abuse of power, the Nigeria police force has a long way to go to regain the confidence of the Nigerian people.
If someone like David Ugolor, front line civil/human rights activist could be messed up by some desperate and vicious powerful individuals using planted characters to distort the facts in the murder of his close friend, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde who was Personal Secretary to former Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, then the current ordeal confronting Senator Melaye should be a subject of public scrutiny.
The erosion of public confidence in the force is unequivocally a self-inflicted injury that will continue to cast a dark shadow over its credibility.
Given Melaye’s outspokenness within the Senate against the high and the mighty it is not out of place to state that politics in Nigeria continues to thrive on the imposition of evil practices by a tiny minority wanting to foist their parochial and demented interests on the will of the majority.
Those who wanted to fix and finish Melaye using the already failed recall process are from all indications not far from the ongoing criminal matter hanging on his head in Lokoga.
By the way, if the collapsed recall process had scaled through against him, it would have been the first time ever that an elected politician was removed from office via that unique process in the checkered history of Nigeria.
We believe fervently that if the rule of law, human rights and sustainable development must be placed on the front burner of genuine democratic dispensation and systemic tolerance, all manners of evil and compromised political cartels and networks must be broken down via the concerted efforts of all people of goodwill.
Nowinta wrote Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
