Controversy has trailed the arrest of two suspected political thugs paraded by the Nigeria Police police in Kogi

Controversy has trailed the arrest of two suspected political thugs paraded by the Nigeria Police police allegedly working for the lawmaker representing Kogi West, Senator Dino Melaye and the son of late Kogi governorship aspirant, Mohammed Audu.

The suspects Kabiru Saidu aka Osama and Nuhu Salisu Aka (small) according to the Force Public Relation Officer, Jimoh Moshood were arrested after a gun battle with the police team, which lasted for several hours on the 19th January, 2018.

Moshood told journalists at the command headquarters in Lokoja that the two suspects upon interrogation confessed working as political thug for Alhaji Mohammed Audu and Senator Dino Melaye.

According to him, “Alhaji Mohammed invited the gang leader Kabiru Osama to Abuja and introduced him to Senator Dino Melaye and they met on airport road Abuja inside Dino Melaye car in December, 2017.

“The suspects further confessed that Senator Melaye told him that they should start working for the senator as his political thugs and they should recruit and train more other thugs to work for him in preparation toward 2019 general election town him (Dino Melaye) challenge his political opponents and disorganized Kogi State.”

Moshood alleged that the suspects confessed to the police that senator Dino Melaye handed over a bag containing one AK 47 rifle, two pump action guns and the sum of four hundred and thirty thousand naira (N430,000) to share with his boy.

He further stated that consequent upon the indictment and criminal confession of the principal suspect Kabiru Saidu, the police wrote to the Senate requesting Dino Melaye to report to the Kogi State police command to answer questions to criminal offences levelled against him, to enable the police carry out a discreet investigation into the confession of the principal suspect but the lawmaker refused to honour the police invitation.

The two suspects during interrogation by media men in Lokoja affirmed the position of the Nigeria police saying “we were contacted by Dino Melaye and Mohammed Audu to work as political thugs during the 2019 general election”.

Earlier before the police briefed the media, the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senator Dino Melaye raised alarms on a social media post that the Kogi state government in connivance with the Nigeria Police had concluded plans to indict him by parading suspected criminals on Monday.