The embattled lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, attended plenary on Wednesday in a cervical collar and supported himself with a walking stick.
Melaye had not been at the Senate for over one month due to his faceoff with the men of the Nigeria Police ahead of his arraignment before Abuja and Kogi State courts over alleged gun-running and attempted suicide.
He was hospitalised over injuries he sustained in one of the attempts to arrest him.
At the plenary, Melaye raised a point of order to thank the Senate, the House of Representatives and their leaderships for defending him during his travails.
He said, “I indeed thank ‘Kogites’ and specially also appreciate the Peoples Democratic Party for making statements during my recall exercise and asking everyone to stay back. Politics has been shown not to be individualistic but to be about issues and purpose. So, to the national chairman of the PDP and indeed the executive of the PDP in Kogi State, I salute you, I salute you, I salute you.
“I want to say I am alive because God defended me. But I want to say that the Nigeria police attempted to kill me twice, first through the application of a chemical substance and the second time through injection. They actually came with an injection to inject me but God intervened.”
Melaye’s speech became dramatic when he urged the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, to direct the sergeants-at-arms to provide another seat for him at the side of the minority PDP section of the chamber, saying that he would sit beside former Senate President, David Mark, in the interim.
He said, “I have a special request from you, Mr. President, that because of the trauma I went through and I am still going through, I want to seek your indulgence that you will call on the sergeants-at-arms to look for a comfortable seat for me on this side (pointing at the PDP roll) of the divide because I am no longer comfortable sitting here.
“So, I want to ask Mr. President that you mandate the sergeants-at-arms tomorrow (Thursday) to look for a seat for me on this other divide of the chamber. And that before you do that, today through the help of my walking stick, I will take a comfortable seat close to ‘Papa General’ Senator David Mark, pending when you get me a comfortable seat on this side.”
Members of the PDP, after Melaye’s speech, ushered him to a seat beside Mark’s where he sat till the end of the session. The former Senate President was, however, not on seat during the period.
Saraki ruled that there was no need for Melaye to relocate to another seat.
He said, “Senator Dino, you made a request which I can’t see the reasons why you now want to sit elsewhere. Is it due to your injury or what? As far as I am concerned Senator Dino, I still know you with that seat. I take note of your request and I take note of your comments.”
The Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, said, “Senator Dino Melaye remains one of the distinguished senators of the APC stock. Let me for the first time reveal that the seats on this (the APC) side are better arranged, positioned and more comfortable. I sat there (the PDP side) for eight years and I know how the seats there are. I have sat here (the APC side) for the last three years and I know the difference. We have the best seats to give to our colleague, friend and brother on this side. If he is no longer comfortable with your seat, we will find any other one here for him.”
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, however, raised a “constitutional order.”
Quoting the constitution, he stated that the primary purpose of government was the security and welfare of the citizens.
He said, “Dino came here this morning and complained about where he sits and he said he would be more comfortable to sit somewhere else; that is welfare. As a government, we owe the duty to Dino to ensure that his welfare is well protected here. That is a provision of the constitution and he has not asked for too much.”
The Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said, “I want to welcome Senator Dino to sit here. We are not complaining. We must be our brother’s keeper.”
In his final ruling, Saraki said, “Senator Dino’s concern is about his comfort and state of mind. None of us has been through what Senator Dino has been through and neither had these rules foreseen this kind of situation.
“I will say that as part of giving support to our colleague, pending when we will make your seat comfortable, you will tell us what we need to make that seat comfortable for you. We will accommodate his request and ensure that we do our best through the Chief Whip and the management to make that seat comfortable, so that you can come back to your seat because this is just a temporary solution to the trauma that you have been through.”
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