Alleged Criminal Offences: Bishop, lawyers, Journalists, others taking side with Dino Melaye against Police are all criminals – SAN

*”It’s annoying people compromising State security for politics, religion”

*MMPN President cautions clerics over untoward comments

*As Ibadan politician asks PFN to disown Bishop or takes responsibility

*Statement credited to Bishop contempt of court – Force PRO

By Kemi Kasumu, General Editor

“Do you know that the Police said that two vehicles blocked them on the road to Lokoja before he was able to jump down?  It is a criminal offence!  Why must you prevent the Police from doing their job?  For those people arrested along with him and taken to court, it is a criminal offence to pervert the course of justice, to prevent law enforcement officers from doing their job. It is a criminal offence.  We don’t need more people like Dino Melaye at all in this country!” He said.

An Ibadan based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Abioye Oloyede Asanike, has chided all categories of Nigerians who have shown support, physically or through the press, for Kogi West Senator, Mr. Dino Melaye, alleged of gun running and sponsorship of armed thugs who robbed, kidnapped and did other evils with intent to destabilize a whole Federating Unit of Nigeria that Kogi State represents, describing them as “all criminals”.

Others who reacted to the Bishop’s statement, reported by The DEFENDER as earlier published in Vanguard on Sunday, include the President of the Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN), Mr. Abdulrahman Balogun, an Oyo State politician, Mr. Hammed Eleyele.

In his reaction, Mr. Oloyede Asanike (SAN) said it smacks of collective criminality for some lawyers, journalists and any religious leader to choose to pitch their tent against the Police in support of a man invited by the Police to come and clear himself of allegation of gunrunning and other crimes connecting with sponsored destabilization of the peace of Kogi State but who, instead of honouring the Police invitation, chose to run away.

The Ibadan senior lawyer said it was more annoying to know that even after he was declared wanted and was eventually arrested, Dino Melaye still “shamefully” attempted to escape from lawful custody, adding that it was unheard of for such act to have been perpetrated by a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The legal icon spoke from Ibadan, Oyo State capital, in a telephone interview with The DEFENDER, on Sunday.

His words: “They are all criminals.  Why must he jump out from the bus?  It is an attempted suicide.  It is a criminal offence and I was happy when Police charged him.

“Now, if Police invited you, you should go there and clear yourself.  You can’t politicize everything.  Why was he running away?

“Some people said he gave them arms.  He can go and confront them, ‘No, I didn’t give you arms’, and he has the money to hire the best lawyer in this country to defend him.  He shouldn’t be running away.  If they (court) leave him, he has shown that he will not surrender himself to the case.  So, I’m in support of the arrest.

“They didn’t push him down.  He jumped down from the vehicle.  It is suicidal.  Assuming he hit his head on the floor and died, would they not now say Police killed him?

“Let us not sentimentalize anything.  The fact that he is a Christian, what does that mean?  He is supposed to be a Senator, a lawmaker, not a lawbreaker.  If it has anything to do with Yahya Bello, that is politics.

“But they said some people said he armed them; he gave them guns.  He should go and confront them and say, ‘No, where did I know you.  I didn’t give you anything.  Where did you meet me?’  And at the end of the day, the Police will charge him to court and the court will discharge him if his hands are clean. But why was he running away? Why did he want to jump from the bus?” Oloyede Asanike asked in obvious disappointment, especially realizing that people that are expected to chide the Senator and reprimand him over the “shameful” attitude chose to take side with him against the law enforcement he said were only doing their job.

He however did not let the matter rest until he had said, “I don’t believe all these sentiments and hypes of a thing.  They are just politicising criminality.  That is my own.  It is unfortunate that this has happened by a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  So, if he had been able to succeed, he would have run away and the Police would have been running after him.

“Do you know that the Police said that two vehicles blocked them on the road to Lokoja before he was able to jump down?  It is a criminal offence!  Why must you prevent the Police from doing their job?  For those people arrested along with him and taken to court, it is a criminal offence to pervert the course of justice, to prevent law enforcement officers from doing their job. It is a criminal offence.

“We don’t need more people like Dino Melaye at all in this country!” He said.

*MMPN President cautions clerics over untoward comments

In his reaction, President of the Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN), Mr. Abdulrahman Balogun cautioned religious leaders against comment capable of compromising national security and worsening the already charged situation in the country.

He told The DEFENDER by warning that, “Religious body must be non-political.  In as much as religious body cannot dissociate themselves completely from political activities in their immediate environment, we would want to sound a note of caution that as religious body they should be fair and show more concern, in their comments, for the peace of the country and law abiding citizens in our comments.

“We should be more cautious in refraining from making comments capable of worsening the already charged situation in our country and show fairness to all concerned,” Balogun said.

On the Bishop’s call on well meaning Nigerians to fight to save Dino Melay from the police as he lamented the what he called the treatment being meted to him, Journalism leader said such ruling is not given on the pulpit.

“For instance, the issue at hand that has to do with Senator Dino Melaye is criminal in nature and the law enforcement agencies are already looking into it.  It has some judicial angle into it because, the charges were given in the court and so it is only the court of law that can make a pronouncement whether the Police is right or wrong. It is not the place of a religious leader to adjudicate that on the pulpit,” he said.

He condemned the PFN’s leader’s threat of ‘No PVC no worship for members in his Church’ saying, “It is good to encourage adherents of each faith to ensure they have their Personal Voter’s Card (PVC).  But to now compel them that ‘if you don’t have a PVC you cannot come to the place of worship’, I think that is equally infringing on their fundament human rights to vote on their own.  They should be allowed to decide on their own whom to vote for.”

PFN must disown statement or we take it against them – Eleyele

In his own reaction, Mr. Hammed Eleyele, who spoke to The DEFENDER from Lanlate, Oyo State on Sunday, said, “My reaction to the Bishop’s statement saying more of Dino Melaye are needed in Nigeria is that we as Nigerians are very highly disappointed that such statement is coming from a religious leader.

“And I would like to call on the Pentecostal churches and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), not only in South South but more widely across Nigeria, to disown the Bishop and tell Nigerians that such statement he made does not represent the position of their religious organisation and Church.”

Eleyele said the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and its member churches should be aware that Nigerians would hold it against them as being spoken for by the South South PFN Vice President.

His words: “Let me also make it pointblank here that PFN’s failure to disown him and disclaim the statement will mean that we, the rest of Nigerians, will be right to hold that he has spoken on behalf of the Pentecostal churches and on behalf of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.  If the PFN and their churches fail to condemn this support by the Bishop for a suspected gunrunner, who has also been alleged to have sponsored criminals with money and guns, we will be right as concerned citizens to hang it on them.”

It will be recalled that Bishop Simeon Okah, who is Vice President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) in South South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, had lamented over his concern about treatment he said was meted out to Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West), stressing that Nigeria needs people like the lawmaker.

On the travails of Melaye, he said: “I have concerns for Dino. His hands may not be as clean as a saint but a man like him has a role to play in building this country.  We need men like Dino. Let everybody of goodwill fight to see that Dino is released; if he has criminal records, he should face it but he should not be kept in detention.”

Statement credited to Bishop contempt of court – Force PRO

When contacted by The DEFENDER for reaction of Police to the Bishop’s statement as reported, the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Jimoh Moshood, said the matter was currently in court and that it would be unethical for anyone to comment on it.

Moshood, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) however, told this online media on the telephone Sunday afternoon that, “The point is that the Police is doing everything within the law.  That is why he (Melaye) was arrested.  Even when he escaped from lawful custody he was re-arrested and taken to court.

“So it is contempt of court for anybody to make such call on matter that is before the court.  The court has remanded him in Police custody,” he said, adding that it was not until the court has given its judgment on the matter that anybody could start making comment on it.