N225m Armored Car: Police Arrest Dino Melaye over Oduah-Must-Go Protest

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Femi Kehinde, Latest Headlines, News Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

By Femi Kehinde, Lagos

The Executive Director, Anti-Corruption Network and former member of the House of Representatives Hon. Dino Melaye, was arrested this afternoon by police in Abuja and whisked away in a Toyota Hilux van, marked NPS 21280 at about 1pm over a protest calling for the removal of the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, over the armoured car scandal.

Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah.

The protest which held at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, around 11 am was against the minister for allegedly ordering the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to buy her two bullet-proof BMW cars, worth $1.6m (about N255m).

At the Federal secretariat, there was another pro-Oduah counter protest.

The police led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police in the FCT, Sunday Olukoya, allowed the pro-Oduah protesters to leave, but stopped the bus conveying Melaye supporters, declaring that they were under arrest.

Melaye in a protest against his arrest said, “When the police pension fund was stolen, we protested on behalf of the police; we were not arrested. When we protested against the theft of fuel subsidy fund, we were not arrested.

“Now that we are protesting the theft of the nation’s money by the action of the minister, who used Nigeria’s money to buy armoured cars in the midst of lack, we are under arrest. The money was not budgeted for, not appropriated.

“The protest affects everybody; the police are also affected because they are taxpayers. I’m also a taxpayer.”