Senator threatened to kill himself to put police officers in trouble

With help from hoodlums, Melaye had briefly escaped from police officers on Tuesday while he was being transported to Kogi state to be arraigned for criminal charges.

The lawmaker had refused to honour police invitations for weeks and had been declared wanted before he was eventually arrested on Tuesday.

Despite surrendering to operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) early on Tuesday, Senator Melaye had insisted he wouldn't be transported to Kogi after a court had ruled that his case be transferred to Abuja.

"The senator also refused to go to Lokoja because he had previously secured a court relief for the case to be moved to Abuja," his media aide, Gideon Ayodele, said.

While he was being transported on Tuesday, the lawmaker refused to be moved by officers and sat stubbornly on the floor by the side of the road.

In a video that has emerged online, he can be seen insisting that he won't follow the officers to Lokoja and that he would resort to killing himself to put the officers in trouble.

He can be heard saying, "I will kill myself and put all of you in trouble. Which court are you going to meet in Lokoja at this time?"

Watch video below:

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Senator Melaye later escaped custody of the police with the help of unknown thugs who blocked the path of the police vehicle conveying him, prompting the lawmaker to jump out of the vehicle through the window and escape with the hoodlums.

A police statement read, "At about 12pm of today (Tuesday) Sen. Dino Melaye while in lawful custody of the Nigeria Police Force and being taken for arraignment in Federal High Court Lokoja, from Abuja, escaped from lawful custody when hoodlums and miscreants in Two (2) Toyota Hilux Vehicles blocked the Police vehicle conveying Senator Dino Melaye around Area 1 Round About, Abuja and in the process the Senator jumped out of the Police vehicle through the window and was rescued from the Police men by hoodlums and miscreants to an unknown destination."

The Senator resurfaced at the in an ambulance, apparently unconscious, around 4:25pm and was admitted into the emergency unit. A medical official told Premium Times that Melaye was not in critical condition, but he was suspected to have broken a vertebrae.

A team of at least 30 armed police officers caught up with Melaye in the health facility and took custody of the room he was admitted into.

According to the police, one of the vehicles used by the hoodlums to aid Melaye's rescue was recovered by officers on Tuesday. The police statement also disclosed that Senator Melaye will be arraigned in court without further delay.

The lawmaker was moved to the National Hospital, Abuja, in a police ambulance around 9:30pm on Tuesday despite objections from Zankli medical staff who advised against moving him.

Melaye's criminal association

After Kabiru Saidu, a.k.a Osama, and Nuhu Salisu, aka Small, were arrested at Ogojueje in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi on January 19, 2018, they confessed to the police that Senator Melaye hired them to cause unrest in the state ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The criminal suspects revealed that the lawmaker handed them a bag containing one AK-47 rifle, two pump action guns and the sum of N430,000 to recruit hardened troublemakers and unleash mayhem in Kogi.

The police first requested Melaye's presence in a letter addressed to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, dated March 2, 2018, urging him to report to the Police on March 7 to answer to the criminal offences levelled against him, but he refused the invitation, alleging that the police was colluding with the Kogi state government to cause him harm.

He was officially declared wanted by the police on March 28, the day he was due to be arraigned in court over the charges of criminal conspiracy and unlawful possession of prohibited firearms alongside OsamaandSmall who both escaped from their prison cell. Both of them were rearrested before April 1.