Southwest APC urges Melaye to apologise for alleged attack on Tinubu’s wife

The Southwest Zone of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday demanded an apology from Senator Dino Melaye for allegedly threatening Senator Olufemi Tinubu on the floor of the Senate during plenary on Tuesday.
The party, in a statement by its Secretary, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, yesterday condemned Melaye’s behaviour, describing it as “undistinguished”.

According to the statement, members of the party in the zone felt “scandalised and traumatised that we are in the same political party with the like of Senator Dino Melaye, who was credited with using the sovereignty of the floor of the Senate chamber to address Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a distinguished senator and wife of our leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in rude, indecent and uncouth language”.
It faulted Melaye’s behaviour, saying it confirmed he has no disrespect for women.
“We, at the All Progressives Congress (Southwest Zone) call on the undistinguished senator to publicly withdraw his tantrums and apologise not only to Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu but also to the entire Tinubu family, womenfolk and the APC in the Southwest Zone. We invite all women society organisations to see this as a fight against the denigration of the Nigerian woman,” the party said.
The party called on the Acting Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to note Melaye’s alleged threat to kill anybody who testifies against the accused persons in the Senate forgery case.
The APC scribe called on the national leadership of the ruling party under the Chairmanship of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun to call Melaye to order, saying the latest misconduct was typical of the senator’s record in politics
“We think Dino’s threat is not just running his usual verbal diarrhoea, but his outburst was a demonstration of the hatred he harbours for Senator Oluremi Tinubu,” the APC said.
Also yesterday, the senator, representing Osun West, Alhaji Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke, described the comment of Melaye on Senator Tinubu, as unparliamentary.
In a statement by his media adviser, Olumide Lawal, the senator said it was unfair of a co-senator to “have descended so low and confronted another female senator, who being a woman, should in the first instance be accorded some measure of respect, being a mother and wife to someone in the society, whom they all defer to in respect”.
Adeleke, who was the first civilian governor of Osun State, cautioned “any would-be senator that takes joy in stirring the hornet’s nest, to have a rethink and stop throwing-up indecent behaviour that could portend danger to our democracy”.
The women’s group of Osun State APC also condemned the statement credited to the Kogi State senator.
In a statement by its leaders, Alhaja Kudirat Fakokunde and Mrs. Taiwo Oluga, the group described Melaye’s attack on Mrs. Tinubu as a disgrace to the Senate and a dent on the image of Nigerian women “because it portrays women as mere object of sexual pleasure and an anatomical symbol”.
The women demanded a public apology, which they said must be tendered to Senator Tinubu, Nigerian women by Melaye and the Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The group said: “In the least, Melaye must be suspended forthwith preparatory to its expulsion. A criminal indictment and prosecution on this matter must follow immediately. Even though the direct victim of the primitive attack of Senator Melaye was Senator Tinubu, a fellow woman and leader of our party, we consider the attack as a collective attack on women in Nigeria.
“It is lamentable that a senator could reduce our Senate to a platform of abuse, physical and verbal assault, sexual harassment of a woman and consequently against the people whose interests he ought to protect.”