ABUJA – The war of words between
Senators Dino Melaye and Oluremi Tinubu got messier Wednesday as a four-man
delegation of the Lagos state House of Assembly stormed the national
secretariat of the All Progressives Congress APC in Abuja accusing the senate
leadership of a conspiracy of silence. Armed with a strong-worded petition
which they submitted to the national chairman of the party, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, the house called for immediate sanctions to be meted on Sen.
Melaye.
The state lawmakers said their
protest became necessary due to alleged derogatory statements made by Mr Melaye
against Mrs Tinubu. Led by the Deputy Speaker of the assembly, Hon. Wasiu
Sanni, the lawmakers exonerated Mrs Tinubu of any wrongdoing, saying while she
is highly-respectful, “she does not take shit”. Sanni who addressed journalists
after a closed-door meeting with Chief Odigie-Oyegun, urged Mrs Tinubu not to
give in to the “uncouth” behaviour of Sen. Melaye. “We are here to show our
displeasure at the ugly incident that happened at the national assembly between
two senators of APC, specifically Sen. Oluremi Tinubu and Sen. Dino Melaye “We
are here to pay solidarity visit to Senator Oluremi Tinubu, that we condemn the
act, she should not be intimidated and she should not yield to verbal assault.
“But let me say this that Senator Oluremi Tinubu that we know, who incidentally
was the First Lady of Lagos state between 1999 to 2007, some of us are like
sons or brothers to her husband Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and in Yoruba land if
you are a son to a woman’s husband you are supposed to be her son; she respects
us and always addresses us as ‘Sirs’. So, she is a woman that is cautious but
she does not take nonsense, she does not take shit. She does not take cheating.
“We are not unaware that there could
be issues at the senate and people can have divergent opinions but when
irresponsible, uncultured, irrational and unguarded statements are used against
a fellow senator, it is bad. Even where there are abuses, there should be equal
and opposite reaction, not excessive. “When we are encouraging women to go into
politics, we don’t want a situation where husband’s would now bar their wives
from politics or where constituents would now resort to sending thugs or egbesu
boys to the senate to represent them. “We also felt that the leadership of the
senate did not act on time.
They allowed it to fester. We
believe that it should have been nipped in the bud. They allowed the issue to
fester which is unbecoming of an august body like the senate. There was
conspiracy of silence and we don’t think it’s acceptable”, Sanni stated. When
asked to justify their protest and the allegation that the sum of N75 million
was paid to sponsor the protest, the lawmaker said “I am the Deputy Speaker,
Hon. Yinka is here, Hon. Desmond Elliot is here; we are buoyant enough to
sponsor ourselves and we all represent Lagos Central Senatorial District where
Oluremi Tinubu is representing. It is a cause that we are convinced that we
must fight and thirdly, yesterday we went on recess we are not resuming on till
August 29th.
“There were protests by concerned women groups
to the Lagos State House of Assembly who wanted their protest taken to the
president. We read it at plenary and it was resolved that it be transmuted to
the president and also that we should call the attention of the national
leadership of our party to sanction the erring senator”, he explained.
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