VOICE AIR MEDIA News Update
Dino Melaye, in a press conference on Sunday in Lokoja, the state capital, said that the irregularities that marred the Saturday election in all three Senatorial Districts were unprecedented in the history of the state, and should not be allowed to stand.
Senator Dino Melaye, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Kogi State governorship election, has called for the cancellation of the election due to the “irregularities that marred the election.”
Melaye, in a press conference on Sunday in Lokoja, the state capital, said that the irregularities that marred the Saturday election in all three Senatorial Districts were unprecedented in the history of the state, and should not be allowed to stand.
He described the exercise as ‘shameful and unhealthy’, regretting that the Independent National Electoral Commission “has not learnt any lesson to realise, ameliorate and palliate the problem they created for the democratic process during the general elections in the country, still repeating the same in the governorship election.
“Yesterday in the five Local Governments of Central Senatorial districts in Kogi State, there was no election. In the end, surprisingly, accreditation was done manually. The BVAS was not used. Prepared sheets manifested even before accreditation and evidence is all over the media.
“INEC as a matter of urgency must cancel the election. In many areas where I won, my agents were told there were no available result sheets to enter the results and we have evidence to back up these claims.
“As I speak to you, it is shameful that this is what our democracy has descended to. INEC has manifested ever than before, that they can not be trusted, they are biased, they are compromised and they can not be neutral umpire.”
The two-term Senator representing Kogi West said that INEC officials and youth corps members were caught yesterday with prepared result sheets even before the commencement of the processes.
He added that a youth corps member was arrested with a prepared result and N1 million.
“They were deliberate suppression of my votes in Lokoja and Kogi Local Governments. This was deliberately done by Governor Yahaya Bello and APC to make sure that even their orchestrated arrangement didn’t come second.
“Because they do believe that there will be a second ballot and they believe if there is a second ballot, I have influence and tremendous support in the central and I can make an inroad in the East. So they preferred any other person to become second,” Senator Melaye posited.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2023 Kogi State governorship election, Dino Melaye has been defeated in his local government area of Ijumu.
According to the results announced on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Melaye was defeated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Usman Ododo.
Ododo, the APC candidate got 10,524 votes while Melaye of the PDP got 6,909 votes.
Below is a breakdown of the results.
Registered voters: 66,482
Accredited voters: 20,405
ADC: 1,898
APC: 10,524
PDP: 6,909
SDP: 356
Valid votes: 19,991
Rejected votes: 348
Total votes cast: 20,375.