Court Grants Melaye Bail

Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, was yesterday granted bail on a two count charge brought against him by the federal government at a High Court sitting in Maitama, in Abuja. In the charge marked CR/106/18 and filed on January 30 2018, the federal government through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, accused Senator Melaye of allegedly circulating false testimony that the Chief of Staff to the Kogi State governor, Mr. Edward Onoja, was the mastermind of the assassination attempt against him on April 15, 2017.

In his argument, counsel to Melaye, Mr. Ricky Tarfa (SAN), prayed the court to dismiss the affidavit filed by counsel to the federal government, Mr. Shuaibu Labaran, which sought to stop the bail application filed in favour of Melaye, saying that the affidavit was incompetent since the person who deposed to it was not even aware of the process. In his own argument, Labaran told the court that the irregularities that marred the process of filing the affidavit were as a result of the bureaucratic bottleneck that processes are subjected to at the office of the Attorney General of the Federation. He then opined that processes and cases that require the action of the Attorney General, should be handed down directly to the counsels who work with the Attorney General in order to ensure their prompt handling.