By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former member of the Nigerian Senate who chaired the Committee on FCT, Dino Melaye has rejected the results being collated after the off-season governorship election in Kogi State, North Central Nigeria.
Melaye, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election alleges infractions in the poll which has the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Usman Ododo, the government-anointed candidate leading with at least over 200,000 votes in the results collated so far.
“There was no election, accreditation was done manually, BVAS not used, prepared result sheets were available before election,” Melaye, an ally of Atiku Abubakar, leader of the PDP and former Vice President told the press in Lokoja, Kogi State capital on Sunday.
“INEC must cancel the election. We have evidence to back up. INEC has manifested gross incompetence; it cannot be trusted, it is biased and compromised,” he said referring to the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said INEC is the bane of development as a nation, adding that the time had come for Nigerians to rise up and effect a leadership change at the electoral body.
The former lawmaker accused INEC officials of refusing to make available result sheets in most polling units, claiming that the areas he won, there were no available result sheet to record.
“I call for a total cancellation of the election. I sympathize with Kogi people; I weep for Nigeria and generation unborn.”
“A youth corper was caught yesterday with prepared result sheets and over one million naira in his bag. How did the APC get access to sensitive materials. I have seen digital rigging in the past , but this very one is legendary and scientific. We will not allow this to stand. We wait to see what INEC will do. This is not the end of it”, he said.
Ododo is leading by a significant margin in results of the 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Kogi State so far declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He has polled 409,450 votes, leaving his closest rival, Muri Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with 208,503 while Dino Melaye has polled 41,925 votes.
