Senator fails to honour Police invitation over physical clash with officers during protest

Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West - PDP) has failed to honour an invitation by the Nigeria Police Force to explain his role in a physical altercation with officers during a protest in Abuja on Friday, October 5, 2018.

Melaye, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce (Bayelsa East - PDP) and leaders of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) had marched to the Force Headquarters to protest against alleged partisanship when the two senators were involved in a clash with officers.

Melaye was one of the main actors of the clash as he could be seen in a shoving match with police officers who appeared to be pushing him back from breaking through the security barricade set to keep the protesters at a distance.

Senator Dino Melaye clashes with police officers at Abuja protest ece-auto-gen

After the altercation, Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, said Melaye, Murray-Bruce, and Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who was also at the protest, had been requested to report to the Force for questioning.

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, condemned the clash as an "unprovoked and unwarranted attack" on officers and alleged that the lawmakers were troublemakers who would be brought to justice "no matter how highly placed".

"Consequently, Senator Bukola Saraki, Senator Dino Melaye and Senator Ben Bruce who were captured on camera to have been involved in the disturbance of public peace and public safety, unlawful blockade of Shehu Shagari way for several hours preventing motorists, road users and other members of the public from having access and passage on the highway thereby disturbing public peace and public safety and causing innocent people to scamper for safety and violent attack on Policemen posted to ensure security of the Force Headquarters, pushing and hitting the Policemen to forcefully enter the Force Headquarters to cause damage to Police equipment and Government properties are hereby invited to report themselves to the IGP Monitoring Unit at the Force Headquarters on Monday, 8th October, 2018 for investigation," the statement read.

Despite the directive for all the affected lawmakers to show up for questioning on Monday, October 8, none of them honoured the invitations.

Melaye took to his Twitter account (@dino_melaye) on Monday to disclose that he has not received any invitation from the authorities.

"I have not received any invitation from the police," he posted on Monday afternoon.

Despite his claim, the Police had noted in a second statement on Sunday, October 7, that invitation letters had been sent for compliance. However, for unexplained reason, Saraki's name did not feature as a person of interest in the second statement.

Melaye vs Police

Melaye is already in troubled waters with the Police as he has already been arraigned before an Abuja Magistrate Court facing charges of criminal conspiracy, causing damage to government property, attempted suicide and escape from lawful custody.

This was after he briefly escaped from police officers while he was being transported from Abuja to Kogi to answer separate criminal charges.