Former Lawmaker Tackles Melaye over Comment against Peter Obi

•Buhari’s govt clueless, incapable of curbing worsening insecurity, says Obi Support Group

Adedayo Akinwale, Udora Orizu in Abuja and David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
 

A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene has described Senator Dino Melaye as a poor student of history.

Ogene was reacting to claims by Melaye that former Anambra governor and the presidential candidate of Labour Party, (LP), Mr. Peter Obi was discovered by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

Ogene in a statement he signed and made available to THISDAY in Awka, described Melaye as a political lackey who served different political gods according to season.

Ogene, a former Deputy Chairman, Media and Public Affairs of the House of Representatives, contended that it was either Melaye missed his Civics classes or was simply a poor student of current affairs, to describe a pacesetting two-time governor of Anambra State as “not known nationally, until 2019.”

“Besides being a record-breaking chairman of the South East Governors Forum during his tenure, Mr. Peter Obi was simultaneously vice chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum at about the same time, despite being governor on the platform of a minority party.

“Even before all these, Obi had been chairman of a pre and post-consolidation bank, and an internationally acclaimed businessman. Pray, what can be more national than these?

“It is, perhaps, a veritable proof of his forgetfulness, or poor knowledge of contemporary Nigerian politics, that Dino Melaye would consider a man at whose behest, through a novel Supreme Court pronouncement some states – including Dino’s Kogi – now have staggered governorship elections, as not known nationally,” Ogene said.

He described Melaye as a political featherweight, who has been chased out of Kogi politics by a younger brother, Governor Yahaya Bello.

“Melaye appears to have crossed over to nearby Abuja to seek relevance, not as a political gladiator, but an irritant intent on gaining notoriety through theatrics.

“Besides Melaye’s diversionary tactics, the truth remains that rival political platforms, especially the All Progressives Congress, APC and the PDP, are scared stiff of the burgeoning acceptance of the OBIdient Movement, geared towards taking back our country from political lackeys like Melaye.

“Otherwise, one wonders why Melaye and his new paymasters would continue to lose sleep over a movement propelled by the Nigerian people.

“Perhaps, Melaye would rather Nigerians continue to reel under an APC-led administration, which he and his ilk helped bring to power in 2015; or seek to replace the regime with the same profligate PDP, whose reign of impunity Nigerians are yet to forget.”