The senator representing Kogi West at the national assembly, Dino Melaye, has been slammed with the charge of alleged illegal weapons possession by the Nigeria Police Force.
The charge, marked, FHC/ABJ/CR/07/2019 was filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to the Punch, the police said a pump-action gun was recovered from Melaye’s house in July 2018 during a search of his property in Kogi state.
The police said the offence contravened Section 27 of the Firearms Act.
“That you, Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West district in the 8th National Assembly, on or about the 20th day of July 2018, at about 12.30 hours under the jurisdiction of this honourable court, unlawfully had in your possession one automatic pump-action shotgun and 20 cartridges, which were recovered at your residence located in the Ayetoro Gbede area of Kogi State, when a search warrant was executed on the directives of the Nigeria Police Force at your above mentioned residence under your control and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27(1)(a)(i) of the Firearms Act Cap F28 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004,” the charge sheet reportedly read.
Also, the police listed eight persons as witnesses and the witnesses comprise six policemen and two men who were painting Melaye’s house when the policemen came to search the property.
In a statement by one of the witnesses attached to the charge sheet, the gun was found not in the main building but the boys’ quarters where cars were parked, the news outlet reports further.
“On July 24, 2018, my master, Peter, brought one Matthew Anthony and myself from Kaduna State to Kogi for painting work in which he took us to one Senator Dino Melaye’s house at Ayetoro, Gbede area of Kogi state.
“While we were doing the painting, policemen, comprising MOPOL, SARS and SCID, came in and met us in the compound and they told me they wanted to conduct a search in the compound and they started to search the compound.
“Within and around the boys’ quarters building, where some cars were parked, under the flower, a gun was observed therewith many bullets but I do not know who put the gun there,” Theophilus Nuhu, one of the painters was quoted to have wrote.
Meanwhile, we had reported that Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi west senatorial district, was moved from the Department of State Security (DSS) Hospital to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters at Guzape in Abuja.
The police moved Melaye to the DSS hospital on Friday, January 11 for further medical examination but the senator allegedly refused to be admitted into the DSS facility and spent two nights outside the hospital.
