According to Daily independence news:
Dino Melaye
The Kogi State command of the Nigeria police on Wednesday declared Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, wanted after suspects who accused Melaye of supplying arms to them escaped from police custody.
However, lawyers, who spoke to DAILY INDEPENDENT, on Wednesday said the police acted unlawfully and with impunity in declaring Melaye wanted.
According to them, there are conditions precedent which ought to be satisfied before the police can declare anybody wanted.
In the face of recent developments, those conditions were not satisfied before the police declared Melaye wanted, the lawyers maintained, adding on that score that “Melaye can sue them.”
According to the National Welfare Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Adesina Adegbite, the police orchestrated the drama, saying, “Basically right from the beginning of the whole drama, any sensible person will know that something was fishy somewhere.”
He maintained that the illegality of the police action is borne out of the fact that Melaye had earlier been in court physically with the police over allegation that he furnished them with false information.
Besides, he is a sitting senator of the Federal Republic.
“It is absolutely illegal and unlawful for the police to declare someone as wanted when they are in communication with him,” he said.
“He had even submitted to court summons involving him and the police.
“You can only declare wanted someone you cannot find; whose abode or place of work you cannot locate; or probably he’s out of the country or had become untraceable over a period.
“But Dino is a serving senator of the Federal Republic. How do you declare such a person wanted?
“This is someone that was seen in the National Assembly just last week.”
He added, “Going to the extent of declaring him wanted is not just unlawful, it is an abnormality. It should be condemned by every well-meaning Nigerian.”
With respect to the Wednesday escape from police custody of the suspected armed robbers, who had alleged that Melaye was their sponsor, Adegbite said it is not enough for the IGP to order their relieve from duty, saying they should be charged to court.
“That is a story which the police must explain as to how it came about, because this is a station we were told is thoroughly secured in Lokoja,” he said.
“Then all the officers in that station, rank and file, should be in detention by now. Somebody must tell us were the escaped suspects are.
“Those under whose watch they were kept must be sanctioned properly not by newspaper announcement or press release.
“They must be seen to have been properly prosecuted for criminal negligence and conspiracy.”
Legal practitioner and President of the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazuruike, equally maintained that there is a recent court decision ruling against the police whimsically declaring somebody wanted.
He said, “I know that there is a recent court decision to that effect. There are some conditions precedent that must be satisfied before you can exercise some powers like declaring someone wanted.
“And I say that with all sense of honesty, zeroing down to Dino’s case.”
He chided the police, saying they are engaged in a comedy of errors over the senator’s case. “The police is actually doing what I will call the comedy of errors,” he said.
He explained that the bottom has been knocked off the case against Melaye, because those alleging his complicity in crime have escaped.
“The link to Dino Melaye is XYZ (the suspected armed robbers). But today that link to Melaye escaped on the eve of their arraignment in court. So the court has no record of the case,” he said.
“Yet you declared him wanted on the strength of the information provided by the escapee suspects against him. Do you understand the irony?
“An escaped suspect named him. So the link is no more there. And that is the mistake most of the security agencies make.
“If there is no direct link to that man, then you cannot charge him to court. If there is no person pointing at him in the presence of the man, the law, the police and the court, then there is nothing to do.”
He stressed that the development was targeted at bringing the senator down politically.
“So it is just another comedy of errors tied to the process of his recall, with a specific aim of making sure he is not re-elected, and with the specific aim of discouraging him, because the police know that if you charge a man with armed robbery, with rape and murder, the man might as well kiss his political career good bye,” he explained.
For senior lawyer, Malam Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN), what is playing out between the police and Melaye is all drama, orchestrated and exasperating.
“Let us see the way the drama would unfold and then we will know what to say,” he said with resignation.
It would be recalled that Ali Janga, former Commissioner of Police, Kogi State, had declared Dino Melaye wanted.
Janga said two suspects, Kabiru Seidu alias Osama and Nuhu Salisu alias Small, who accused Melaye of supplying arms to them, escaped from custody.
He said they fled from a police division in Lokoja where they were being kept in “lawful custody”.
According to him, four other suspects escaped along with Seidu and Salisu, bringing the total number of fleeing suspects to six.
He said 13 policemen comprising five operatives of special anti-robbery squad (SARS) and eight conventional policemen on duty when the incident happened had been detained for interrogation.
IGP Orders Immediate Removal Of Commissioner Of Police In Kogi
Ibrahim Idris, Inspector General of Police (IGP), has ordered the immediate removal of the Commissioner of Police in Kogi, Ali Janga.
A statement by the Force Spokesman, ACP Jimoh Moshood, issued in Abuja on Wednesday, said the removal followed the escape from custody of two principal suspects and four others whose confession allegedly indicted Senator Dino Melaye.
The suspects are Kabiru Seidu, a.k.a Osama; Nuhu Salisu, a.ka Small; Aliyu Isa, Adams Sulieman, Emmanuel Audu and Musa Mohaamed.
Moshood said that the IGP had directed CP Esa Ogbu, the commissioner in charge of Federal Operations at the Force Headquarters, to take over as the new Commissioner of Police in Kogi.
The spokesman said that 13 police officers involved in the escape of the suspects had been detained.
He said that the Commander in charge of Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) in the state, the DPO of A Division, Lokoja, and other officers implicated in the escape had been transferred out of the state.
The suspects were to appear on Wednesday at the Federal High Court, Lokoja, in a case of conspiracy and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms.
The suspects had implicated Melaye and Mohammed Audu during their confessions.
Senate Gives IGP 48 Hours To Produce Fleeing Suspects
Meanwhile, the Senate on Wednesday gave the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to as a matter of urgency produce the fleeing suspects within 48 hours.
This came after Melaye narrated his ordeal to the upper legislative chamber.
“Mr. President we were all supposed to appear before the Lokoja High Court this morning. My lawyers were in court at 9a.m and the case was called up and the prosecutor of the Nigerian police could not produce the two persons.
“Instead of producing the two persons, they asked the judge to issue bench warrant for my arrest. But the judge refused to grant their prayers. The judge said despite the fact that I have not been served I sent representation to the court. And the main accused persons are absent in court”, Melaye said.
Continuing, he said, “Rumours have it that this people were moved from detention, and rumours have it that they may have been killed because yesterday two international organisations were in Kogi based on my petition to find out what is happening.
“Surprisingly these two people have now been declared escapees. Mr. President, I want to use the opportunity and on the principle of justice to call on the Inspector-General of Police that within 48 hours he must produce these accused persons because they are presumed innocent until proven guilty, they also have right to life.
“So police must as a matter urgency produce these two accused persons. Failure to do so I will sue the IGP for mental assault. Nigeria is not a banana republic”, he said.
The Senate, therefore, directed the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to as a matter of urgency produce the suspects within 48 hours.
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