Tinubu Is Not God, I Am Not A Coward, I Am A Kogite, Not Lagosian, I Can't Bow To Them - Dino Melaye
Senator Dino Melaye yesterday, said he was provoked by Senator Oluremi Tinubu
into a verbal altercation in the Senate’s closed-door session of on Tuesday
and dismissed threats by her husband, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying he was
neither God nor his political patron.
In his reaction to news reports of his use of violent language and physical
threats against Senator Tinubu, Melaye, at a press conference in the Senate
Building, said most of the reports were exaggerated, even as he admitted using
violent language upon her after she allegedly called him a dog and a thug.
Melaye, who addressed the Senate Press Corps upon what he claimed as media
misrepresentations on what happened in the Tuesday closed-session, said he
spoke on his “honor as a Christian, on my honor as a father and on the oath of
my office as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said: “I have never been a coward; I will not start an apprenticeship
programme now on how to become a coward. “Whatever I say anywhere, I can
boldly repeat everywhere. When I stood up, and I made my submissions that day
in the Senate, all I did was to pacify my colleagues and ask that the case in
court be withdrawn because already, there is a resolution of the Senate that
the rules of the Senate were not forged, and since there was a resolution of
the Senate that the rules of the Senate were not forged, I said all those who
have gone to court should go and withdraw their names from court and that if
at the end of the day, they refused to withdraw their names from court, we
should penalize them by suspending them. I said that.
“But I did not use any insolent, abusive, degrading or manner-less language.
So, there was no reaction from any of our colleagues as regards my
presentation. “After I had spoken, many other senators spoke, and I did not
mention the name of any senator while I was making my presentation.
Unfortunately, Senator Oluremi Tinubu got up and was recognized to speak, and
immediately she started speaking, she specifically mentioned my name, even
when in my presentation I did not mention anybody’s name.
Also See:
Dino Melaye is Going Downhill, He is a Disgrace To The Senate- Tinubu
“I only appealed to the sensitivity of my colleagues and asked them to
withdraw their case from court and reminded them that there was a resolution
of the Senate that the rules were not forged. But because of reasons only
known to Senator Oluremi Tinubu, she got up, and the first thing she said was
that she’s being harassed in this chamber by Senator Melaye.
“I kept quiet at that point; she went ahead to say that why will she come here
and be threatened by senators and there was a large chorus from senators
saying ‘how, when, where’.
“At that point, I was still very calm. She got up again and said that this
thug must be tamed. At that point, I got up, and I told her that she is very
stupid.
“The next statement from her was that you are a dog. She called me a dog, and
when she called me a dog, I stood up, and I reacted and told her that this is
not Bourdillon and that she should look at my face, I am not one of those
senators who normally come to prostrate to them in Bourdillon.
“I told her I am from Kogi State, I am not from Lagos State and that there
would never be a day I will come to you for political assistance. These were
my words, and she went on shouting dog, thug.
“I want to tell you, gentlemen of the press, that for every reaction, there
must be an action. When I got up to address my colleagues, she was not the
only senator there. If I had used insolent language or foul languages, you
know the type of senators we have. They would have reacted, and some of them
would have even addressed you guys by now to say Dino insulted us.
“But because she acted in the manner she did, not one senator stood up in her
defence when I was tongue-lashing her. Even the senators from Lagos were
there. Senator Ashafa was there; he didn’t stand up from his seat.
“It is not true that anybody circled her because there was no need to. I did
not leave the spot I was sitting. I didn’t get up from my seat.” Responding to
assertions by Senator Ajayi Boroffice, he said: “Unfortunately, this
expatriate senator, absentee senator called Senator Borrofice was not even in
the chamber, and he has not been in the chamber for the past two months.
“He was not in the chamber; I was surprised, maybe, he has celestial powers to
understand what happens in his absence. “If there are instances that I am not
a super human being, if there are instances where as a human being, I have
reacted negatively, I am also ready to be apologetic about it.
“I never even used insolent language but because they are yet to heal the
wounds of defeat of the election of the Senate President and because of my key
role in this exercise, where she and her husband called me severally to appeal
to me to back off from Saraki, and I said I would not back off Saraki.
“I will continue to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. I
will continue to be a voice for the voiceless and in reaction, I heard that
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu said my political career has come to an end. I want
to say that Tinubu is not God. I fear only the God Almighty; I fear no soul; I
only respect souls.
“So far, my political journey to the House of Representatives and the Senate
had no political, financial or moral contribution of Senator Bola Ahmed
Tinubu. The God, who has brought me this far, is mighty, strong and enough to
take me further. What God has given me, no man can give, and what God has
given to me, no man can take.”
He equally dismissed claims that Senate President Bukola Saraki nodded
repeatedly to his alleged barbs against Senator Tinubu, saying nothing of such
happened.
Source:
Vanguard
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