By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
Senator Dino Melaye has declared that no amount of intimidation, blackmail and harassment “can distract” him from fighting the course of humanity.
The lawmaker, who declared this during a peaceful protest organised in his honour by elderly women in Kogi-west against the recent assassination attempt on him, said he had been fighting for the masses, stressing that he “cannot be distracted from fighting for Kogi people.”
According to him, no government in the history of Kogi state has generated the kind of money Governor Yahaya Bello has generated.
He noted that despite the over N20 billion bailout given to him and the N11.2 billion Paris Club funds “plus the monthly allocations and the internal generated revenue,” the governor could not pay salaries to civil servants and pensioners.
Melaye said “many civil servants with terminal ailments have suffered untimely death as a result of nonpayment of their legitimate entitlements, while some also died on their ways to Lokoja to attend the endless staff screening exercise.”
“It is unfortunate that today many parents can no longer pay their children school fees, some cannot afford quality health services and they cannot feed properly all because salaries are not paid to workers.
“No matter the intimidation and threat to my life, I will continue to talk until Governor Yahaya Bello does the needful. We cannot fold our arms while the people continue to wallow in penury and perpetual abject poverty,” he said.
Melaye, who was full of praises to the women, assured them that as a senator representing Kogi western senatorial district, he “will not relent” in his efforts to speak and fight for the less privileged.
Spokesperson of the protesting women, Mrs. Ekusemore Jalo, said the women in the district were in Aiyetoro-Gbede to show solidarity to Melaye whom she described as “a dogged fighter against injustice.”
Mrs. Jalo, who noted that “Melaye is representing us well,” warned detractors to stay clear from the senator,” saying they were mothers and “don’t want him to be murdered.”