Society Gists

The war of words between Senators Dino Melaye and Oluremi Tinubu got messier Wednesday as a four-man delegation of the Lagos state House of Assembly stormed the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress APC in Abuja accusing the senate leadership of a conspiracy of silence.

Armed with a strong-worded petition which they submitted to the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the house called for immediate sanctions to be meted on Sen. Melaye.

The state lawmakers said their protest became necessary due to alleged derogatory statements made by Mr Melaye against Mrs Tinubu.

Led by the Deputy Speaker of the assembly, Hon. Wasiu Sanni, the lawmakers exonerated Mrs Tinubu of any wrongdoing, saying while she is highly-respectful, “she does not take shit”.

Sanni who addressed journalists after a closed-door meeting with Chief Odigie-Oyegun, urged Mrs Tinubu not to give in to the “uncouth” behaviour of Sen. Melaye.

“We are here to show our displeasure at the ugly incident that happened at the national assembly between two senators of APC, specifically Sen. Oluremi Tinubu and Sen. Dino Melaye

“We are here to pay solidarity visit to Senator Oluremi Tinubu, that we condemn the act, she should not be intimidated and she should not yield to verbal assault.

“But let me say this that Senator Oluremi Tinubu that we know, who incidentally was the First Lady of Lagos state between 1999 to 2007, some of us are like sons or brothers to her husband Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and in Yoruba land if you are a son to a woman’s husband you are supposed to be her son; she respects us and always addresses us as ‘Sirs’. So, she is a woman that is cautious but she does not take nonsense, she does not take shit. She does not take cheating.

“We are not unaware that there could be issues at the senate and people can have divergent opinions but when irresponsible, uncultured, irrational and unguarded statements are used against a fellow senator, it is bad. Even where there are abuses, there should be equal and opposite reaction, not excessive.

“When we are encouraging women to go into politics, we don’t want a situation where husband’s would now bar their wives from politics or where constituents would now resort to sending thugs or egbesu boys to the senate to represent them.

“We also felt that the leadership of the senate did not act on time. They allowed it to fester. We believe that it should have been nipped in the bud. They allowed the issue to fester which is unbecoming of an august body like the senate. There was conspiracy of silence and we don’t think it’s acceptable”, Sanni stated.

When asked to justify their protest and the allegation that the sum of N75 million was paid to sponsor the protest, the lawmaker said “I am the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yinka is here, Hon. Desmond Elliot is here; we are buoyant enough to sponsor ourselves and we all represent Lagos Central Senatorial District where Oluremi Tinubu is representing. It is a cause that we are convinced that we must fight and thirdly, yesterday we went on recess we are not resuming on till August 29th.

“There were protests by concerned women groups to the Lagos State House of Assembly who wanted their protest taken to the president. We read it at plenary and it was resolved that it be transmuted to the president and also that we should call the attention of the national leadership of our party to sanction the erring senator”, he explained.