Jesusegun Alagbe
It was like a scene from a Nollywood movie on Tuesday when the senator representing Kogi West District in the National Assembly, Dino Melaye, allegedly jumped off a moving police van at Area One Roundabout, Garki, Abuja, in an attempt to prevent the police from taking him to Lokoja, Kogi State.
He was later admitted to Zanklin Hospital, Mabushi, Abuja, after he sustained injury as a result of his action.
The police were said to be taking him to Kogi State, where they allegedly planned to parade him before the media alongside six suspects for alleged gun running and criminal conspiracy.
The senator had initially been arrested by operatives of the Nigerian Immigration Service at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on Monday morning on his way to Morocco.
Later that Monday, policemen were said to have 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 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.
However, 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.
An eyewitness said about five hefty men, believed to be the embattled lawmaker’s supporters, had emerged from nowhere in two pick-up vans and made spirited efforts to drive the senator away in their vehicles.
The situation was said to have caused pandemonium in the area as the policemen were shocked by the senator’s audacious act and allegedly threatened to shoot the lawmaker and his supporters.
In a video which later trended on the Internet, Melaye was seen sitting on the floor, threatening that he would kill himself and put the policemen guarding him into trouble.
In the meantime, the police have said they had re-arrested the lawmaker at the hospital where he was being treated.
The force spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, said that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, had directed a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to his escape on Tuesday and that he would soon be charged to court.
By the way, some senators, including the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, have visited the embattled lawmaker at the National Traumatic Centre in the National Hospital, Abuja, where Melaye had been transferred to for treatment.
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