Dino Melaye is a failed Senator, a regret of Kogi-David Onoja

Edward David Onoja, the Chief of Staff to Kogi state Governor Yahya Bello, has referred to Senator Dino Melaye as a failed senator and the ‘regret’ of Kogi.

Onoja said this in a statement on Monday wherein he reacted to a trending video of an interview posted by a television station under a banner headline he considered “utterly irresponsible”.

He said: “Their unfortunate shenanigans have become comic relief around here. If we cough and they declare there is a tuberculosis pandemic in the state, we have learnt to take a sip water, smile and continue with what we are doing.

“Were it for them alone, I would not be making this rejoinder. But when our failed, rudderless senator, the one we all know as the Regret of Kogi, who has no constituency office and who only visits home as elections near to pick fights, takes up on that video and begins to wax songs and dance naked in the marketplace with it, well, then, we must reply.

“Men may sympathise with a madman on account of his insanity, but if he starts trying to burn down the village, they must restrain him – for his health, and others’.

“It is important to understand the positions I espoused on that brief call. My reference to Kogi workers who are owed 12 months of salaries was not directed to those workers who were cleared in the first or second stages of our Staff Screening and Verification Exercise because those ones started receiving payments as soon as they were cleared.

“I meant those who were screened out by the earlier Screening Committees for one reason or the other.

“Those among them now cleared after the Kogi Stakeholders Congress which ended around 8pm last night are the ones still having delayed outstanding of up to 12 months some cases.

“However, the Government has promised to do everything within her powers to pay them in full this month.”