The embattled senator who was
granted bail last week, shared the open letter to Nigerians on his Facebook
page this afternoon. Read below
Someone once said, that, rock
bottom is good solid ground and a dead-end street is just a place to turn
around. In the last few weeks, I have been taken to the good solid ground at
the rock bottom and they couldn’t go further. I have been brought to the
dead-end street but with you standing by my side, I have turned around and bounced
back to the chagrin of those who sought to seal my lips from speaking out
against tyranny, politics of oppression and blackmail. They, unleashed an
endless barrage of physical, psychological, metaphysical and emotional torture
and assault on me, but, through the power of the Most High, and you the good
people of Nigeria, we have once again, seen the triumph of truth over lies and
good over evil.
It was Edmund Burke who was quoted as saying
that when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by
one, … in a contemptible struggle. I am of all men, a blessed man, to have
courageous and dependable people like you as my fellow soldiers in the struggle
to free us from the shackles of political strongholds and tyranny. It is to you
and my most wonderful and ever knowledgeable people of Kogi State, especially
Kogi West, that I owe my deepest gratitude. You stood by me against the state
and your own ‘best political self-interest’.
The state unleashed its raw power
on me and released a 200 man-strong fully armed policemen - on a man without a
knife nor a bullet. It did this because I called injustice by its name and
called for accountability. For this they sought to break my spirit and destroy
me permanently. In their moment of reign, I was fully shackled. With my hands
tied to my back, and hurled into a dark solitary confinement waiting for the
butchers knife, you, my people stood by me. You came against a raging fire and
stood up against tyranny, lies, filthy lucre, injustice, persecution and greed.
While in the dark and unable to fight for myself, they sought to take my
mandate, which you had freely given to me. But you answered back and quenched
deceit in its wake. You stood resolute and unflinching and defended your
mandate to me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. In their attempt to
break me, they have made me stronger.
To you my indefatigable leaders;
my irremovable President of the Senate, a man of immeasurable vision for
Nigeria and true fighter for the enthronement of true democracy and the rule of
law, Sen. (Dr.) Abubakar Bukola Saraki. The fearless Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, I thank you both for your
steadfastness in the defence of the Nigerian Constitution and the enthronement
of the Rule of Law, justice and equity and the emasculation of anti-democratic
forces and tyranny everywhere in Nigeria. I am eternally grateful to you.
To the entire National Assembly
Membership, especially my colleagues in the Senate, I am eternally indebted to
you for not playing politics but standing courageously against oppression and
terror. You have shown yourself leaders on whom Nigeria’s hope for tomorrow can
be assured.
To you our governors, ministers,
my dear Okun people and leaders, the National Chairman and Kogi State Executive
of the PDP, leaders of the Diplomatic Corps, opinion leaders, Chief Mike
Ozekhome SAN, Chief Ricky Tarfa SAN, human rights lawyers and activists, and
all my well-wishers and lovers of democracy in Nigeria; the Christian and
Muslim Community, all of you that visited me in the National Hospital, after I
was injured and subsequently detained at the hospital. I thank you all for your
steadfastness in the defence of due process and the rule of law. I also thank
you for your courage and solidarity.
Our ever foresighted and
courageous civil society leadership, the media, leaders of thought across the
country, our hard-working youth for whom I will give my last blood, our loving
mothers and sisters, I lack words to express to you my profound gratitude for
the unbreakable chord of love that binds me to you through thick and thin. You
have strengthened my resolve and hardened my flesh against those who seek to
devour and make meat of me. You have once again proven to me the axiom in the
saying that “in prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our
friends." I am very grateful. For your sake, I remain unbowed.
I know many of you worry about my
safety and life in this new dispensation where life is no longer sacred in
Nigeria. But do not be troubled. My bond of love for you, my good people, makes
it impossible for me to consider my self-risk, safety, comfort or opportunity
in my unflinching commitment to stand up for you, to stand up for truth and if
necessary die for the truth and the emancipation of our people from the chains
of poverty and oppression. Though they raise spurious allegations against me,
bear false witness against me, though they seek to frighten me and lure me into
their bounty of evil, I will fear no foe.
Yes, my traducers and torturers
wish that I keep quiet; though they seek to seal my lips, to silence my voice
forever, I remain ever more resolute and committed. I am committed to this
cause for which I am a politician; the cause of the down trodden, to speak
truth to power and stand against oppression and injustice. On these issues
there will be no compromise. I owe no apologies and I tender none.
Like I have always said, you
speak the truth, you die, you don’t speak the truth, you die. I have chosen to
speak the truth, dead or alive. Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr., once said,
“Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it
politics? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the
question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it
is right.”
To my people, I promise you this
and this only. I have taken my position, I will not hold back, I will not hold
my peace, I will not be shut down, neither will I shut-up, not as long as
injustice and falsehood continues to reign, as long as I will live, I will not
bow to Baal.
May the Almighty continue to keep
you all and be your bulwark until victory is assured. Once again, I thank you
all so much.
God bless you.
God bless the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
Sen. Dino Melaye (SDM)
Kogi West
Chairman Senate Committee on FCT
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