The governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kogi State, Dino Melaye and Muritala Ajaka, have both rejected the declaration of their All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Usman Ododo, as the winner of the Saturday election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had on Sunday declared Ododo winner after scoring a total of 446,238 votes to defeat his opponents, Ajaka and Melaye who polled 259, 052 votes and 46,262 votes respectively.
The announcement was met with objections from both Melaye and Ajaka.
Melaye, while addressing the media in Lokoja on Sunday, called for the cancellation of the election, citing what he referred to as “irregularities that marred the election.”
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He expressed concern over the unprecedented irregularities across all three senatorial districts, urging INEC to take swift action.
He described the exercise as “shameful and unhealthy”, regretting that INEC has not learnt any lesson to realise, ameliorate and palliate the problem it created for the democratic process during the general elections in the country.
He said, “Yesterday (Saturday) in the five local governments of Central Senatorial District in Kogi State, there was no election. Surprisingly, accreditation was done manually, the BVAS was not used, prepared result sheets surfaced even before accreditation and evidence is all over the media.
‘”The 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 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 to. INEC has manifested ever than before, that it cannot be trusted, it is biased, it is compromised and it cannot be a neutral umpire.”
Similarly, Ajaka, in a statement rejected the results of the poll, saying it was against the electoral laws.
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The statement issued by his media aide, Faruk Adejoh-Audu, read, “Against all logic, laws and decency, the Independent National Electoral Commission is hurriedly progressing with the announcement of the results of an election it has hitherto and voluntarily declared as dubious and compromised in Kogi State.
“The INEC has suddenly turned ostrich to pretend that the malpractices it uncovered can just be ignored and nobody, not even the victims of the electoral heist, is entitled to protest.
“In this regard, we are calling on INEC to immediately cease announcing the results forthwith until it has cancelled these areas that its criminal staff members colluded to rig the votes in favour of one candidate as exposed by I-rev.”
