The embattled lawmaker, who represents Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Dino Melaye, Sunday, relived his ordeal in the hands of Kidnappers who allegedly abducted him last week in Abuja suburb, Gwagwalada area on his way to Kogi State.
He said he spent 11 hours on top of a tree to escape the assassins’ bullet.
He said the gunmen who attacked his vehicle on Thursday wanted to kill him, adding his attackers were policemen.
The Senator said he was on his way to court for a third appearance in his ongoing trial for alleged criminal conspiracy.
Melaye, who briefed journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said he escaped the alleged assassination attempt around Gwagwalada along the Abuja-Lokoja Road on his way to attend a court case in Lokoja, the state capital.
The lawmaker explained that he left Abuja in the early morning of Thursday for Lokoja and observed that a Toyota Sienna car was trailing him. He said the car overtook his car, blocked his way and the occupants started to shoot at his vehicle.
The lawmaker, who defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday, said when the suspected assassins realised that his vehicle was bulletproof, they attempted to burn it.
Melaye said: “When I realised that they wanted to burn my vehicle, I quickly opened the car and ran into the bush. I had to run for my life. It was the grace of God that made me to escape. When I got into the bush, I climbed a tree and stayed there. While on the tree, I saw two of the policemen coming to look for me, but they didn’t know I was on the tree. I was in the bush for 11 hours.
“My brother that was in one of the vehicles didn’t know what happened, so he had to raise the alarm that I was kidnapped. He went to the Gwagwalada police station and reported the matter.”
“They started shouting that they wanted to burn me, they said ‘burn him, burn him down,’ and crossed the road to look for tyres to set the vehicle on fire,” Melaye said.
“I jumped into the bush, and I started running,” Melaye said. “They pursued me and I was able to outmanoeuvre them and climb a tree.
“I was on top of the three when I saw them run past looking frantically for me. When they didn’t find me, they also ran back.”
The Senator said it was on the tree that he perched until his assailants left. While on the tree, he saw four of them passing, but remained hushed to avoid being detected.
He would go on to spend 11 hours trying to ensure that he was no longer at immediate risk from his assailants and navigating his way out of the overgrown weeds.
He also said he could not identify any of them, even if there is an identification parade by authorities, largely because he was more apprehensive of his survival than anything else at that traumatic moment.
He said when he appeared in court on Wednesday for his attempted suicide trial at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, he saw some men trailing him after the proceeding
He was driving to Lokoja in a vehicle not previously known with him, in a bid to disguise his move to those who were trailing him.
“I was going in a totally different vehicle, but I asked my brother to drive behind me in an SUV as a back-up,” he said. “But I was shocked to see the attackers run into the middle, creating wall between my brother and I before attacking me.”
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