APC women in Osun state have released a statement calling for the senate
to suspend Dino Melaye over his recent outburst and comments to Senator
Oluremi Tinubu during their plenary on Wednesday July 13th. Read the
statement signed by the state’s AP Women leader, Kudirat Fakokunde
below.
“Our attention has been drawn to the widely reported attack on Senator
Oluremi Tinubu, a Senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District
of Lagos State by Dino Melaye, the senator misrepresenting Kogi West
District.
Even though the direct victim of the primitive
attack of Senator Melaye was Senator Tinubu, a fellow woman and leader
of our party, we women of the APC in Osun, 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. Senator Melaye’s attack and
threat to beat up Senator Tinubu and impregnate her, were uncouth,
indecent, demeaning, humiliating, sexist and criminal. It is a clear
violation of the law which the same Senate passed in 2015, to protect
our people.
The provisions of the Violence Against Persons Act of 2015 are so clear
that no woman and decent people would allow the heresy of Senator Dino
Melaye to go unchallenged. In sections 4, 5, 14, 18 of the law quoted
above, acts of verbal abuse and sexual threats are taken as attacks
which must be prevented against any Nigerian especially women. In
section 14, the law states, “a person who causes emotional, verbal and
psychological abuse on another commits an offence and is liable on
conviction to a term of imprisonment”
Senator Melaye’s attack on Mrs Tinubu is a disgrace to the Senate and a
tar on the image of Nigeria women as it portrays women as mere object of
sexual pleasure and an anatomical symbol. We demand that a public
apology be tendered not only to Senator Tinubu but to all Nigerian women
by Senator Melaye and the Senate President who allowed the attack on
the Nigerian Women to pass without sanctioning Senator Dino on it. In
the least, Dino Melaye must be suspended forthwith preparatory to his
expulsion. A criminal indictment and prosecution on this matter must
follow immediately”.