LEST WE FORGET WHAT IS RELEVANT

Hon. Dino Melaye

On Monday 15th of April 2013, the social media and news was awash with reports about an assassination attempt on the life of former federal lawmaker and Executive Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Network, Hon. Dino Melaye. According to him, he was coming from the National Hospital, Central Area, Abuja at about 9:30pm when the assailants who were in a Volkswagen golf car, overtook his car near the NNPCT towers, parked ahead of him and started shooting sporadically.

Dino Melaye's car

Two bullets hit his car but he managed to escape unharmed to a Police check point nearby for safety and also to report the incident with the wind screen of his Bentley badly cracked. However, a cracked wind screen was not enough to make the Policemen at the check point spring to action as the scene of the alleged assassination attempt was not their "beat".

In a swift response totally uncharacteristic of the Nigerian Police Force - barely 24 hours after, the Abuja Police Commissioner, Olufemi Ogunbayo released a statement refuting Hon. Melaye's claims of an assassination attempt. He stated that the lawmaker said he was on his way home from the National Hospital, Abuja in his air-conditioned car, all windows wound up listening to cool music when he noticed a Range Rover Sport Golf car drive past his (Emphasis mine).

He added that when the police went to the scene to investigate the incident, they didn't find any parked car or shell casings; neither did the questioning of residents reveal anything to support Hon. Melaye's claims.
He went further to construct what he understood to be an assassination attempt. In his words;

"If they had wanted to kill Dino, they do not need to drive and park meters away from Dino's car before shooting, they would have just blocked his car and shoot him at the spot, so that cannot be called an attempted assassination. And how then is it possible for you to be in your car wind up enjoying the air condition and a very cool music and then you hear a gunshot?"

So from the foregoing, they didn't really want to kill him. They probably were just playing with him...or trying to frighten him.

While I concede that there are still some unanswered questions - like how two bullets failed to penetrate a wind screen that is not bullet-proof (there are conflicting reports as to whether the car is bullet-proof or not), one cannot help but notice the spite and disdain in the report of Mr. Ogunbayo and many Nigerians as well.
I am not a fan of Dino Melaye but I agree that he has been the most visible activist in recent times, tirelessly hounding the government for its unfriendly policies. Is it so far-fetched to think that an attempt can actually be made on his life? I think not.

I find it highly pretentious for anyone who was not in the Bentley with Mr. Melaye when the alleged assassination attempt occurred to brand him as an attention seeker. Nigeria is an unsafe place as we all know. The sanctity of human life means nothing to those who have sworn to protect it and gradually, that i-don't-care-as-long-as-it-isn't-me-attitude is gradually becoming the norm.

Why did the Police men at the check point Mr. Dino Melaye escaped to refuse to act in a timely fashion rather than claim it wasn't "their beat"? It raises serious questions as to the ability of the NPF to handle a competent investigation. Mr. Ogunbayo claimed a forensic investigation was carried out; this strikes me as odd when no attempt was made to contain the scene of the alleged incident in a timely fashion. Any investigator worth his salt knows that a contaminated scene is useless.

I found it quite sad how many Nigerians lost sight of the original issue and began to cast aspersions on the character of Mr. Melaye because he drove a Bentley. Not many people really cared about whether the attempt on his life was real or not. What became center stage was how he could afford to own a Bentley. I don't care what Dino Melaye does for a living but knowing how vindictive the PDP-led FG can be, he would have been hauled off to court on numerous charges if there was evidence of any malfeasance against him. Take a chill pill people and focus on the real issues.

The attitude of NPF is the real reason we will never know if the assassination attempt was real or imagined. Little wonder why after many years and many political assassinations, we still have no idea of who the perpetrators are. No explanation was proffered as to how the cracked glass on Mr. Dino's Bentley came about. Instead, the Abuja commissioner of police came to regale Nigerians with tales of how an assassination, not an assassination attempt is carried-out in his opinion. He obviously haven't heard about drive-bys.

I'm not even going to talk about the part of how a gun shot is inaudible because a person wound up "enjoying the air condition and a very cool music" because it is as ridiculous as it sounds. Neither am I going to talk about the new brand of vehicle called "Range Rover Sport Golf"; probably assembled in Ogunbayo's garage.

These "Ogas at the top" are not so bright, are they?

Malcolm O. Ifi.

I am on twitter @saymalcolm