Kogi Guber: Wada defeats Melaye, ex-gov, others to emerge PDP candidate

Musa Wada has emerged the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16 governorship election in Kogi State.
The Chairman of the governorship primary election committee, Ahmadu Fintiri, told reporters on Wednesday in Lokoja that Mr Wada emerged by polling 748 votes to beat 12 other aspirants.
Mr Fintiri, who is the Governor of Adamawa, also disclosed that another aspirant, Abubakar Ibrahim, polled 710 votes to come second, while former Governor Idris Wada came third with 345.
Other aspirants and their scores as announced by Mr Fintiri were Dino Melaye, 70 votes; Aminu Abubakar Suleiman, 55; Victor Adoji, 54; Erico Ahmeh, 42; Salihu Atawodi, 11; Mohamed Shaibu, 4l Bayo Averehi, 2; Emmanuel Omebije, 9 and Grace Adejoh, 0.
The committee chairman said that he decided to announce the results, having been satisfied that the conduct of the primaries had complied substantially with the provisions of the party’s constitution.
“We have performed well and we should be commended by all the aspirants,” the governor said.
He said that 2,388 delegates were accredited for the election while 2,109 votes were cast.
He also said that 54 voided votes were recorded, with 244 unused ballots, while 247 ballot papers could not be accounted for.
Mr Fintiri also said the 247 missing ballot papers could be as a result of the invasion of the venue of the primary by yet-to-be-identified gunmen, saying that the number was not enough to damage the integrity of the exercise. He added that any aggrieved aspirant was free to lodge an appeal with the national secretariat of the party.
In his reaction, Mr Melaye expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct and the outcome of the election.
He claimed that the winner was allowed”to bring over 600 votes from his house” which, he said, the committee accepted and counted in his favour.
Mr Melaye, who spoke through his agent, Femi Obalemo, said that he would appeal the decision of the committee.
Also speaking, Mr Ibrahim, who came second, said that the winner defeated him with 38 votes, which, he said, was not up to the missing 247 ballot papers. He expressed the confidence that if the missing ballot papers could be recovered, he would emerge the winner.
Mr Wada, who was declared winner, appealed to other contestants to accept the result in good faith and in the interest of the party, promising to carry them along in all the processes leading to the real election.

 …INEC to deploy 24,000 ad-hoc staff for Kogi, Bayelsa elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would deploy 24,000 ad-hoc staff for the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections on November 16.
Premium Times quoted the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, in an exclusive interview at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja. Mr Yakubu also said the staff would go through training ahead of the off-cycle election adding that for security training, the commission had written the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
INEC had earlier announced plans for the upcoming Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections. The elections will hold simultaneously in the two states on November 16.
The parties’ governorship primaries in both states are expected to have ended by September 5.
“In Bayelsa State, we are going to record 9,000 ad hoc staff and for Kogi, we are going to have about 15,000. We have to train them so we need to start early,” Mr Yakubu said.
“And for security training, we have written the Inspector General of Police for the commencement of security training.”
The INEC chair also said there are over 170,000 uncollected Permanent Voters Cards in Kogi alone with about 50,000 in Bayelsa State.
“Our intention is to make sure that we target the registered voters who have not collected there cards,” Mr Yakubu said.
He also said the commission would ensure it reaches a large number of people “who are yet to collect their voter cards by sending bulk SMS and making phone calls through there known phone numbers”.
The official also said INEC would also compile a comprehensive list of all the uncollected cards.
Mr Yakubu said INEC would provide details of the number of registered voters and the number of PVCs collected to political parties 30 days before the election as required by law.
“We have about 50,000 uncollected PVC’s in Bayelsa State and over 170,000 in Kogi elections. INEC would endeavour it reaches them. Quite a number of them have phone numbers and we would send bulk SMS or call them.”
“We would also make a comprehensive list of all the uncollected (cards) similar to the voters register at ward LGAs so they can go and check. We are also going to make some telephone numbers available at state level so that people who see their names can call our offices to inquire where they should collect their cards. We hope this will go on up till the end of September,” he added.