Police firing teargas, gunshot into Dino Melaye’s house - Lawyer

- Chief Mike Ozekhome called on the police to vacate Senator Dino Melaye's house

- The lawyer claimed the senator has not had access to food and water in 72 hours

- Ozekhome accused the police of denying Melaye his fundamental human right

Chief Mike Ozekhome who is Senator Dino Melaye’s lawyer has claimed that the lawmaker has been denied food and water for the past 72 hours due to the siege by policemen in house.

In a statement on Monday, December 31, the lawyer said the policemen have made it difficult for the lawmaker to enjoy his basic human right due to how he has been treated.

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He said: “Friday, the 28th of December, 2018, a team of plain-clothed policemen, stormed Senator Dino Melaye’s house at No 11 Sangha Street, Maitama, Abuja, and barricaded the entire street before eventually forcefully gaining entry into his compound.

"The said plain-clothed policemen proceeded to beat up Melaye’s security whom they immediately handcuffed. They also arrested the cook and other domestic staff in Senator Dino’s residence. His relatives approached the head of the said security to find out why they were treating Dino, a serving Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in such high-handed and disdainful manner.”

The lawyer said the head of the police team told Dino’s relatives that they were acting on the instruction of the commissioner of police FCT but failed to disclose the reason for the siege.

He said: “The Nigeria Police led by the Commissioner of Police FCT, proceeded to do the unthinkable; they disconnected electricity supply to the premises of Senator Dino Melaye, thereby putting his life and health in grave danger. They have also disconnected water supply to his home thus denying him access to water, a concomitant to the basic constitutional right guaranteed by section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as altered.

“Senator Dino Melaye has been without water and food, for the past 72 hours and counting as the said policemen, have blocked the gate, denying family members and his friend’s access to him. Senator Dino Melaye is a known asthmatic person and has been denied access to his medications and personal physicians for the past 72 hours and counting. The police are now firing several gunshots within Senator Dino Melaye’s compound and have now started shooting canisters of tear gas through the windows of his house.”

The lawyer said the Kogi senator’s security details have been withdrawn since April and all attempt to get them back have failed.

He said: “The same Nigerian Police, have refused to release Senator Dino Melaye’s International Passports, which is in their custody, notwithstanding a clear order of court directing them to release same forthwith. Our Chambers had written several letters to the Inspector General of Police, urging it, to obey the subsisting court order, but the IGP, had consistently flouted the said court order. Till date, Dino’s passports are illegally and wrongfully detained by the same police, notwithstanding the subsisting court order, and several letters from our chambers urging them to release same. Senator Dino Melaye was charged in different hierarchies of the Nigerian court, within five months, over six times, over trumped-up charges.

“Some of these frivolous charges have either been withdrawn by the police, or struck out by the court. It is highly condemnable that the recent attacks on Senator Melaye’s life appear obviously state-sponsored by his political enemies using the instrumentality of a willing police, to prevent him from campaigning and thus frustrate his political ambition of returning to the Senate.”

Meanwhile, the PDP said on Sunday, December 30, that the only sin the senator representing Kogi West, committed was his defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and determination to fight misrule.

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The opposition party said with the continued lockdown on the residence of Senator Melaye by the police, “the Muhammadu Buhari presidency is turning Nigeria into a police state, where those opposed to President Buhari’s re-election are treated like enemies of the state.”

The party, in a statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, its spokesman, said the continued siege, “showed that the police under President Buhari, had become an instrument of oppression to subjugate dissenting voices ahead of the 2019 general election.”

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