Senator Dino Melaye: "I don’t know if Prince Audu was poisoned"

Senator Dino Melaye ‘cannot say’ for sure, if the deceased candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Kogi State 2015 governorship election, Prince Abubakar Audu, was poisoned.

Melaye said on Wednesday, during a show on African Independent Television, that only God knows if foul play was responsible for the death of Prince Audu.

“I cannot say he was poisoned. I will not say what I do not know. God is the only one who sees everything. I can only weep. For him, it was the end of a cycle,” he said.

The senator representing Kogi-West, also said it was impossible that Audu stole N11billion from the state’s coffers, as was widely believed.

Melaye described Audu as down to earth person and a friend of the people, adding that he built all the existing institutions in Kogi state.

“How can a man who received N17bn in less than four years steal N11bn? This was a man who paid pensioners, did not owe workers and carried out a big infrastructural development in the state. What has the EFCC been investigating since 2003? It is all politics. Audu never stole Kogi’s money.

This was a man who built Kogi State University, Kogi State Polytechnic, Obajana Cement Factory and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dangote Cement. Audu built all the institutions that exist in the state today.”

“Audu was the only politician who was down to earth in Kogi State. I was his closest political associate. He loved his people. He was a friend of the downtrodden.

It will be difficult for any other governor to connect with the people like Audu did. A man who was ready to listen to bean cake sellers and cobblers was a man to be taken seriously.’’