Forces of evil will never triumph — Melaye *APC’s the loser
– Faleke *Bello wasted N5bn – PDP *Prove allegations – Gov Bello By Boluwaji
Obahopo LOKOJA —The recall verification exercise of the senator representing
Kogi West, Dino Melaye, has failed after the verified signatories to the
petition for his recall fell short of requirement. Sen. Dino Melaye For the
verification to succeed, 50 per cent plus one of the signatories to the
petition had to be verified. However, Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, yesterday, said only 5.34 per cent of the petitioners turned up for
verification of their signatures. The Declaration Officer for the exercise,
Prof. Ukertor Moti, who announced the result of the exercise held in the
senatorial district on Saturday, said only 18,742 of the 189,870 of the
signatories to the petition for the senator’s recall were verified by INEC.
Attack on INEC office There was attack on INEC office in Mopamuro Local
Government towards the end of the exercise as some hoodlums disrupted the
collation of results, shot in the air, damaged vehicles and escaped with result
sheets, while the INEC staff fled for safety. The exercise, which lasted from 8
am to 2 pm, was very peaceful, free, fair and credible as the scanty
petitioners were seeing verifying their signatures. In Lokoja, for instance, of
the 66,266 signatories on the recall register, the highest in any of the LGAs,
only 4,810 constituents showed up at the polling units, with 3,763 verified.
INEC not responsible for poor turnout However, INEC has said that it cannot be
held responsible for the poor turnout of petitioners in the exercise. INEC
Federal Commissioner in-charge of Kogi, Kwara and Nasarawa states, Mohammed
Haruna, made the statement in Lokoja shortly after the end of the exercise. He
said the main concern of INEC was to ensure transparency in the process,
insisting that the organisation was neutral in the bid to recall Melaye from
the Senate. “Turnout is not our problem; turnout is the problem of parties
concerned, ours is to ensure transparency,’’ he said. Melaye, who represents
Kogi West in the National Assembly, has been struggling to retain his seat,
following a petition by some of his constituents in 2017 that he was not
representing them well. The senator’s accusers gathered signatures to demand
his recall but Melaye accused the state governor, Yahaya Bello, of being the
mastermind of the plot. Forces of evil will never triumph — Melaye But Melaye
in a swift reaction, thanked his supporters for rejecting his recall move and
promised not to let them down. “Thank you my people. God bless you all. Thank
you for the confidence reposed in me. I will not let you down. I will always
stand by the truth and the people at all times. God bless Kogi West,” he wrote
on Twitter. “Every lie has an expiry date. Forces of evil will never triumph
over forces of light. God is with us,” he said. APC’s the loser— Faleke
However, the deputy governorship candidate in the 2015 elections in Kogi State
and member representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, James Faleke, has described
the fallout of the verification as a pointer to the fact that Governor Yahaya
Bello was unpopular in the state. In separate tweets through his handle
@JAFaleke, Faleke said the ultimate loser in the failed recall exercise was the
All Progressives Congress, APC. “Until those who worked so hard to win election
for the party in Kogi State are given due recognition, Governor Yahaya Bello
will continue to struggle politically without results,’’ he said. Mocking
Bello, Faleke said Dino Melaye defeated the governor, despite being in police
detention. He added: “The recall project has failed. The people won. The
outcome today is not just about Dino but the open rejection of the Yahaha
Bello-led state government. “Even in detention, Dino Melaye defeated them.
Clear sign that Yahaha Bello is very unpopular in Kogi State.” Bello wasted
N5bn on recall process — PDP Meanwhile, People’s Democratic Party, PDP,
yesterday accused Governor Yahaya Bello of wasting N5 billion public fund on
the alleged plot to recall the Senator Melaye. The party lamented that the N5
billion would have paid at least two months salary of workers in the state In a
statement signed by Achadu Dickson, Kogi State Director Research and
Documentation, PDP, also called for a thorough investigation of the claim by
some of the electorate who turned out for the exercise that their signatures
were forged. It said: “Those who were involved in the petition submitted to
INEC for the recall of Senator Dino Melaye must be arrested and tried for
forgery. “The huge human and financial resources deployed to the ‘Dino Melaye
must go’ agenda would have made meaningful impact on the lives of the
downtrodden people of Kogi State, especially the workers that are being owed
several months salary. “The open rejection of the recall agenda by the people
of Kogi State was a clear signal that APC and Governor Yahaya Bello have been
rejected in the state.” Prove allegations, Gov Bello tells PDP But Governor
Yahaya Bello denied the allegation and asked PDP to prove it. Chief Press
Secretary to the Governor, Mrs Petra Onyegbule, who spoke on behalf of the
governor, queried: “Does Kogi have N5 billion?
No, Kogi does not have N5 billion, let alone spending it on the recall
process. “Governor Bello is not from Kogi West, so how could he have so much
interest in recalling the senator from the area? “We all as citizens of the
state, including the media, have a collective responsibility to verify
allegation of this magnitude. The PDP should prove it, not only allege, just to
whip up sentiment.”
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