Melaye Demands Cancellation Of Kogi West Senatorial Election

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16 Kogi West Senatorial Rerun Election, Senator Dino Melaye, has demanded the cancellation of the exercise.

Naijaparry understands that Melaye demanded the cancellation when he visited the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) again on Tuesday to submit another petition.

It was learned that no INEC national commissioner was present to receive Senator Melaye’s petition, however, a senior officer in the office of the INEC chairman, Jafaru Leko received the petition.

Speaking to reporters, Melaye said his call for the cancellation of the exercise was due to the intimidation of voters and violence by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the first conduct of the poll.

The controversial lawmaker added that the commission should act on his petition and not start preparing for a supplementary election.

He, however, asked INEC to postpone the exercise, alleging that the electoral umpire did not include some of the polling units that were canceled during the November 16th election in the forthcoming supplementary poll.

INEC had fixed the conduct of supplementary and re-run elections for Kogi West Senatorial District and Ajaokuta Federal Constituency for November 30.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, in a statement, said the decision was taken at a meeting in Abuja.

He recalled that at the conclusion of the court-ordered Kogi West Senatorial re-run election on Saturday, supplementary polls were indicated by the Collation/Returning Officer for the Senatorial District.

The affected areas include 20 Registration Areas, 53 Polling Units and 46,767 Registered Voters spread across seven Local Government Areas of the Senatorial District.

He added that the list of affected registration areas and polling units would be uploaded on INEC website and communicated to the stakeholders in the respective registration areas and polling units.

Kogi Election Violence: Melaye Presents 21 Video Evidence At INEC Office

Naijaparry had reported that Melaye was at the headquarters of INEC last week Wednesday in Abuja to demand the cancellation of the Kogi West Senatorial election.

It was learned that Melaye was received by INEC Secretary, Rose Orianran-Anthony, and National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

Melaye said he came to present the pieces of evidence of violence and indiscriminate shootings by alleged agents of Kogi State government because he wants to retrieve his ‘stolen mandate’.

The senator said that he was confident of the outcome of the election because he had the results from the polling units.

The petition by Melaye, dated November 18, 2019, and entitled: “A call for cancellation of the Election for Kogi West Senatorial District held on November 16 2019 in certain areas”, was filed by his lawyer, Tobechukwu Nweke.

Part of the petition reads, “In conclusion, sequel to the abovementioned spread violence, gunshots and killings, disruption of the election, snatching of ballots, multiple thumb printing, several electoral malpractices, irregularities and total sabotage of the electoral process cut across all the seven Local Government Areas in Kogi State which were demonstrated in the video footages attached herein, and the facts in paragraphs 1-5 above which reveals that the election was not conducted in Kogi State Senatorial District, in substantial compliance with the dictates of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) as well as the requisite Guidelines and Regulations issued for the election we urge the commission to cancel the entire election to the Senate of Kogi West Senatorial District held on November 16 2019.”

Speaking further about the election, Melaye told reporters that: “In Egbeda ward, the State Speaker of House of Assembly led thugs to cart away ballot boxes and all these ballot boxes were taken to a designated, all thumb-printed in favour of APC and all these results returned in favour of APC.

“All areas where there were killings, there were shootings, helicopters releasing bullets, helicopters releasing teargas, all those areas results were returned.

“I won the election because we have the polling units results, I won the election with a wide margin and nobody will take my seat in the National Assembly”.
Reacting to claims and counter-claims regarding the alleged role of police officers in marring the elections in the state, Senator Melaye wondered how a few fake policemen could outsmart the thousands deployed for the election exercise.

“The Inspector-General of Police yesterday addressed the media, said that there were fake policemen that operated in Kogi State. And I was saying that it is a big problem for us as a nation if fake policemen will overpower 66,000 policemen provided for Bayelsa/Kogi elections, then that means we are in a very precarious situation in this country, that means no one is safe.”

Okoye said the commission would look into the petition and take necessary action.