Dino Melaye Reacts To Kogi Election

The Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP Sen. Dino Melaye has reacted to the result of the senatorial rerun election in Kogi State.

Dino noted that the magical result coming out of Kogi election was unacceptable.

He noted that he won in the Afternoon, but in the evening, results were being doctored, even as he decried the wantom killings that characterised the exercise and the governorship election in the state.

It could be recalled that the senator had earlier won the February 23 National Assembly elections by defeating Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had his victory anulled by the Election Petitions Tribunal and subsequently the Abuja division of the Appeal Court, which concurred with the lower court and ordered a fresh election.

Dino said “in the afternoon and by midnight, the APC manipulated the results,” adding that the manipulations were made possible through the machinery of the APC in the state with the support of Governor Yahaya Bello by unleashing “unprecedented violence” on voters and electoral officials.

He said “They did this by attacking my strongholds and then rig their strongholds. That is exactly what happened. They also went to Abuji where I am very strong politically, election did not take place there. There were sporadic firing of gunshots.

“They went to Lokoja and carted away ballot boxes in over 10 polling units.‎ They went to another place and carted ballot boxes from over 12 units. But I am surprised that, INEC despite this violence, three people were shot and two died, four people were killed in Lokoja, seven were killed in the eastern part of the state. This is the record we have so far, apart from those who sustained gunshot wounds and those who were macheted and all that.”

He further alleged that, the results of one of the wards which the PDP won with over 1000 votes was rejected by the returning officer because of the marging of defeat between him and Adeyemi.

Melaye said, “Meanwhile, in the ward of the Speaker Kogi State House of Assembly, Prince Kolawale, where he led thugs to cart away Ballot Boxes. These Ballot Boxes were stuffed and brought back to the Collation Center and they were collated and admitted.”

Dino vehemently rejected the outcome of the election.

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https://ekohotblog.com/2019/11/18/pdp-reacts-to-kogi-bayelsa-elections-says-party-remains-strong/

He said “The Electoral Act is clear, the Election Manual is very clear, that when the number of cancelled votes outweights the number of votes between the winner and the loser, definitely, the election must be declared inconclusive.

“We are waiting to see what INEC will do. ‎But I reject in totality these fictitious results. I Dino Melaye won that election in the afternoon and then APC won it at night. I won that election clealy and we have Polling Units results. We have collected all the Polling Units results and I won with a very very wide margin.”