Dino Melaye Issues Seven Day Ultimatum To INEC To Review Kogi Governorship Election Results

Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded governorship election in Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye, has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review the outcome of the November 11 polls.

Recall that Melaye came a distance third in the poll which the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Usman Ododo, was declared the winner.

Ododo was said to have polled 446,237 votes while Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came second with 259,052 votes, and Melaye 46,362 votes.

Melaye, however, has since rejected INEC’s declaration, calling for the cancellation of elections at some polling units in the state.

The PDP candidate, who spoke yesterday during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, alleged that there were cases of mutilation, overvoting, and suppression of voters in the election.

He said: “It was based on the mutilation results that Yahaya Bello’s stooge was declared winner. INEC is aware that some local government results were written before the election.

“This is what happened across the local government. Seventeen local governments in Kogi State have overvoting.

“We have submitted our petitions to INEC with shreds of evidence this afternoon. Our next line of action is that INEC has seven days to review petitions. We are going to see what they will do. In a just society, silence is a crime.”

Melaye insisted that INEC must cancel the election in five local government areas of the state.

He said, “INEC must cancel the election in the five local governments of Kogi central. The election in Okene, Okehi, Ajaoukuta, Adavi, and Ogori/Mangogo is a scam coordinated from the highest level of INEC.”