The candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dino Melaye and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) counterpart, Muritala Ajaka, in the Saturday Governorship election in Kogi State have called for total cancelation of the the election due to “irregularities that marred the election”.
Senator Dino Melaye in a press conference on Sunday in Lokoja said that the irregularities that marred Saturday’s election in all the three Senatorial Districts waere unprecedented in the history of the state and should not be allowed to stand.
He described the exercise as ‘shameful and unhealthy”, regretting that INEC has not learnt any lesson to realise, ameliorate and palliate the problem they created to democratic process during the general elections in the country, noting that they are 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. Many areas where I won, my agents were told there were no available result sheets to enter the result 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 from. INEC has manifested ever than before, that they can not be trusted. They are biased, they are compromised and they can not be neutral umpir,” he said.
According to him, INEC officials, youth corps members were caught on Saturday with prepared result sheets even before the commencement of the processes. “A youth corps member was arrested with prepared results and N1 million.
“There was 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, I don’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.
Also, the Kogi state chapter ofSDP has called for the cancellation of results of the November 11th governorship election in the state.
SDP made this call at the gubernatorial election collation centre where the party’s collation agent, David Edibu, submitted a petition to INEC, calling for cancellation of results in Okene, Okehi, Ogori Magongo, Adavi, Ajaokuta Local Government Areas as well as some parts of Lokoja alleging corrupt practices, vote buying and overvoting.
He added that agents of the party were not allowed to get close to the polling units in the local government areas.
The state returning officer, Prof. Johnson Urame received the petitions on behalf of the commission and assured the party that the petition will be reviewed.
The PDP has said that they are keying into the petition of the SDP. The collation agent, Abubakar Mahmood, added that the number of malpractices in the said local government areas were alarming.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC), while reacting to the call for cancellation, said that the PDP cannot blame anyone for not bringing agents to the polling units.
