The can of worms being opened as a result of the increasingly public separation of Anti Corruption Network director, Dino Melaye and his estranged wife Tokunbo seems to have no end.
In a new submission from the family of Tokunbo, it was revealed that after one of the numerous beatings Mr. Melaye manifested on his wife, he scampered to safety for fear of being lynched by her brothers who came to his Abuja residence to demand an explanation. Mr. Melaye was so afraid he called the police who attended to his battered wife earlier to save him from ‘armed robbers.’
The excerpt from the statement reads:
Proof of Mr. Melaye’s History of Assault
1. The Nigerian public is aware that Mr. Melaye has the unique distinction of being the first Legislator in our political history to turn the National Assembly into a boxing ring. It should not be too difficult to imagine what the private conduct will be, of a man who saw no issues with turning a hallowed legislative chamber into an arena of violence in full view of 160 million Nigerians. If the public Mr. Melaye is garrulous and prone to violence, the private Mr. Melaye, free from the prying eyes of outsiders, is an unfettered beast.
2. Abusers do not believe that their victims are bold enough to document their abuse. What they forget however is that others who love and care for those victims can detail the abuse on their behalf. A number of the assaults inflicted on Tokunbo over the years have required hospitalization, and in one case, reconstructive surgery to Tokunbo’s nose after Dino battered her. Every hospital dutifully places a record of each visit in a patient’s medical files. We have obtained certified copies of the records in Tokunbo’s medical files from two attacks – in 2005 and 2010 and these have been attached to this letter.
3. We are also glad to oblige Mr. Melaye’s challenge for proof with the attached pictorial evidence of his extensive history of abuse towards Tokunbo, from a vicious attack on her on Oct 1st, 2010. While Nigeria was celebrating its 50th independence anniversary, a man who is supposedly a conscience of the nation, was busy attacking his own wife with a wood plank.
4. The only reason why there are pictures from the 2010 assault was because Tokunbo’s brothers were in Abuja on the day in question and had rushed down to meet her at the Wuse Zone 3 Police Station which is close to their home, where she had fled to escape Mr. Melaye’s assault. Tokunbo’s brothers were present when the police took her statement, and were present when Tokunbo was accompanied by a police constable to Wuse Hospital for the treatment of wounds to her arms, sustained as she attempted to protect her head from being hit by a wood plank Mr. Melaye was assaulting her with.
5. Mr. Melaye’s shameful cowardice is also on record. After Tokunbo’s wounds were treated on Oct 1st, we (her brothers) went to Mr. Melaye’s residence to find out why he had assaulted our sister. On seeing us, the man who was a wood plank wielding warrior to a defenseless woman, took to his heels, asked his guards to lock his gates from the inside, and was reduced to peeping through a curtain. Mr. Melaye then placed a call to the police to report that “armed robbers” were at his home. The police response team that came was comprised of some of the officers from Wuse Zone 3 police post that we had met when Tokunbo had gone to make her statement. They immediately recognized us when they arrived, and left in disgust and disbelief that the distress call came from Mr. Melaye. The police can verify all these facts from their records.
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