Melaye accuses Oluremi Tinubu of splashing out N7m to organise Abuja rally against him

KOGI West's Senator Dino Melaye has accused Senator Oluremi Tinubu representing Lagos Central Senatorial District of doling out N75m (£197,000) to women activists to protest against him in Abuja today.

 

Over the last week, Senators Melaye and Tinubu have been involved in a bitter spat on the floor of the Senate, involving a heated exchange of words. Senator Tinubu has now written to the inspector general of police demanding protection claiming that Senator Melaye threatened her life, after he said he would beat her up.

 

Now, it appears that the row is escalating and looks set to boil ove4r as hundreds of supporters are expected in Abuja today to protest against Senator Melaye.  Senator Melaye quoted one Professor Taibat Majekodunmi, the national president of the Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights as saying that the money is to organise a protest in Abuja with 1,000 protesters brought in from Lagos.

 

Senator Melaye added: “The protesters have booked 300 rooms in some in hotels in Abuja. Why did she not organise a protest against the hardship of Nigerian women and widows because as we speak, Alade market in Ogba area of Lagos has been destroyed and all the women rendered shopless but Oluremi Tinubu did not organise protest about that.

 

 “Women were killed in Kano and Abuja and Mrs Tinubu is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs and she did not organise protest over these killings. She has not protested against the skyrocketed price of tomatoes in the market and in the same vein, kerosene is now over N200 per litre and she didn’t organise any protest to that effect.

 

He added that instead, she has taken advantage of the prevailing poverty in the land to hire hungry women in the land to partake in an unproductive protest against Dino Melaye. According to the Kogi senator, women like Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Hajiya Gambosa Sawaba and Sarah Jubril, fought for women without attacking any man.

 

Senator Melaye said Oluremi Tinubu should emulate the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandhi, Benazir Bhutto and Dora Akunyili. He added that if Senator Tinubu goes ahead with her planned N75m protest in Abuja, he will also mobilise Nigerian women against this ostentatious display of wealth while the average Nigerian women wallow in abject poverty.