Death threat: Buhari needs to visit London again, says Melaye

Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi west at the national assembly, says President Muhammadu Buhari needs to revisit London, suggesting a need for a medical checkup.

He said the president spoke with the anointing of Idi Amin, late Ugandan dictator on Monday.

On Monday President Muhammadu Buhari said he has given the military and the police the order to be ruthless, stating that those who snatch ballot boxes will pay with their lives.

“I really gave the military and police order to be ruthless,” Buhari had said.

“Anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disturbs the voting system, will do so at the expense of his own life.”

But speaking on Channels TV on Tuesday, Melaye said he was disappointed in the president’s utterances about ballot snatching.

“I want to start by saying I am utterly disappointed in my president, I am completely in shock that in a democratic setting, the president will speak with the anointing of Idi Amin Dada of Uganda,” Melaye said.

“The president will use the word ruthless, the president will order killings of Nigerians without going through legal procedures, that is totally unacceptable.

“The statement just reminds me of the part of the Bible that says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”

Melaye said he expected that the president should have apologised and withdrawn the statement, and apologise to Nigerians.

“That statement is very unpresidential, and I expected that by now, the president should have apologised to Nigerians and withdraw that statement, but instead, there has been a lot of efforts, boxing the wind by chieftains of the APC trying to defend what is undefendable,” Melaye said.

Melaye said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not in support of ballot box snatching, but in a sane clime, the laws should be adhered to strictly.

The lawmaker took it a step further to say the president needs to visit London again, suggesting the number one citizen of the nation is in need of medical attention.

“That statement from Mr President actually, for me, is a serious confirmation that the president has to visit London again because it is not expected for any rational thinking, intellectually mobile leader to make such statement.

When told to temper his words, Melaye insisted that he has not been “insolent at all,” but simply advising the president.

Festus Keyamo, Buhari’s campaign spokesman, said the robbery and firearms act prescribes death for anyone involved in armed robbery, adding that snatching ballot box is armed robbery.