Denge Josef Onoh, Chairman of the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly and former Southeast Spokesman for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has tackled the African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Dino Melay.
In a strongly worded press release, Onoh accused Melaye of attempting to ‘play God’ and weaponize mortality against a sitting president for cheap political mileage.
Onoh said that the viral social media post by the former Senator for Kogi West maliciously invoked death of the late military ruler, General Sani Abacha, as a prophecy against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Melaye claims that ‘God picked His phone and called Abacha,’ implying that a similar fate awaits President Tinubu.
Onoh said that if the Almighty were as swift to wrath as Dino’s bitter imagination suggests, Melaye himself would long ago have been answering queries before the divine throne.
Onoh said for the records of the public, he feels compelled to remind Nigerians of the ‘very actions Dino Melaye perpetrated against the State-actions that the same merciful God chose to overlook, giving him time to repent, an opportunity he has clearly weaponized into arrogance’.
Onoh said that as a member of the House of Representatives, Melaye led a free-for-all physical brawl that disrupted legislative proceedings, resulting in torn clothes, broken bones, and his eventual suspension.
Onoh said that Melaye theoretically undermined the institutions of state security by physically jumping out of a moving police vehicle to evade arrest, followed by a dramatic ‘collapse’ onto the asphalt, and later hiding in a hospital and up a tree.
Onoh said that during the 2023 presidential election collation at the National Center in Abuja, Melaye acted as a chief agent of destabilization, trying to aggressively halt a constitutional process because the results did not favor his principal.
Onoh said that Melaye openly brought the hallowed chambers of the Senate into disrepute by physically threatening and using deeply misogynistic language against Senator Oluremi Tinubu (now the First Lady).
Onoh said, If Dino Melaye truly understands the ‘God factor,’ he would realize that God is a God of long-suffering and patience. It is that divine patience that kept Melaye alive when he was jumping out of police trucks, jumping from political party to political party, and flaunting unexplained luxury while his constituents wallowed in poverty’.
Onoh said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is focused on the difficult, systemic economic reforms needed to undo the decades of rot that politicians contributed to.
Onoh went further to state that the 2027 election will be decided by the democratic will of the Nigerian people at the ballot box, ‘not by malicious, superstitious curses masked as spiritual insights’.
He advised Melaye to drop his ‘self-appointed role as a divine prophet of doom’, look into the mirror, and ask God for forgiveness.