Senator Dino Melaye. Photo: Instagram
An Abuja High Court sitting in Maitama has ordered lawyer to the embattled Senator Dino Melaye to elucidate inside 24 hours the absence of the senator from court docket proceedings.
Justice Olasunbo Goodluck gave the order on Wednesday, the identical day the High Court of Kogi State in Lokoja delivered a ruling on a bail utility filed by Melaye who was mentioned to be in Police custody.
The Lokoja court docket granted Melaye bail in absentia, with a surety for N10m.
Melaye’s absence from the Abuja court docket on Wednesday prevented the prosecution from opening its case in respect of the 2 counts of giving false data regarding an assassination try on his life to the Police in April 2017.
In the case, the senator was accused of intentionally giving false data to the Police to border Edward Onoja David, who's the Chief of Staff to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
Melaye had cited David because the mastermind of the alleged assassination try.
The police mentioned they found the alleged falsehood in Melaye’s declare whereas investigating the alleged try on his life at his hometown in Ayetoro-Gbede in Kogi State.
The senator, on March 1, 2018, pleaded not responsible to the fees filed in opposition to him by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation on January 31, 2018.
He is going through two different expenses, certainly one of which bordered on gun-running, earlier than a Magistrate’s Court in Lokoja, Kogi State.
The different set of expenses filed earlier than a Magistrate’s Court in Abuja included a tried suicide, which he allegedly dedicated by leaping off a Police car whereas beneath arrest.
At the Wednesday’s listening to of the alleged frame-up case earlier than the FCT High Court in Abuja, the prosecuting counsel, Magaji Labaran, stated that he was set to open his case by calling the primary prosecution witness, however expressed fear over the defendant’s absence.
Labaran urged the decide to summon the individual standing as surety for the bail granted the senator to elucidate the defendant’s whereabouts to the court docket.
But defence counsel, Rickey Tarfa (SAN), mentioned Labaran didn't give “a fair representation” of the info resulting in the defendant’s absence from court docket.
Tarfa mentioned Melaye, whereas mendacity on a stretcher, was arraigned on the fees of tried suicide earlier than the Magistrate’s Court in Abuja, on May 2, 2018.
The court docket granted him bail, however the Police re-arrested him on the court docket premises and moved him to Lokoja the subsequent day to face the gun-running expenses.
According to the SAN, the Magistrate’s Court in Lokoja refused to grant bail to the senator, however a fresh utility for his bail was promptly filed earlier than the High Court of Kogi State in Lokoja.
He mentioned the Lokoja High Court had mounted Wednesday for its ruling on the bail utility, however within the interim, ordered the Police to maneuver the senator from the jail, the place he was remanded by the Magistrate’s Court, to Abuja the place he should be given ample medical care by the Police.
Tarfa stated that defined why his client was absent from the Wednesday’s proceedings.