Senator Dino Melaye recounts how he ‘escaped from kidnappers and hid on a tree for 11 hours’
According to Premium Times, Senator Melaye confirmed he was not abducted, but that some suspected gunmen attacked him on his way to Lokoja from Abuja on Thursday morning for a court appearance.
“A convoy of three vehicles drove recklessly by my vehicle, intercepting me on the highway and forced me to stop”
“The assailants tried to open fire to force themselves into the vehicle, only to realise that it was a well-fortified vehicle with bullet-proof. Without much time to waste at the scene, the attackers devised an alternative”
As the attackers dispersed in different directions to scavenge for tyres, Mr Melaye said he feared for his life and made an instinctive calculation to jump into the bush and bolt, rather than remained in the car in defiance.
“I jumped into the bush, and I started running,” Mr Melaye said. “They pursued me and I was able to outmanoeuvre them and climb a tree.
“I was on top of the three when I saw them run past looking frantically for me. When they didn’t find me, they also ran back.”
The senator said it was on the tree that he perched until his assailants left. While on the tree, he saw four of them passing but remained hushed to avoid being detected.
He would go on to spend 11 hours trying to ensure that he was no longer at immediate risk from his assailants and navigating his way out of the overgrown weeds.
He also said he could not identify any of them, even if there is an identification parade by authorities, largely because he was more apprehensive of his survival than anything else at that traumatic moment.
