Politics

Kogi West Senatorial election inconclusive – Electoral body

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the
senatorial election in Kogi West district inconclusive.
The electoral umpire said the declaration is due to the fact that the
margin between Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
and Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is lower than
the number of registered voters in 53 polling units of 20 registration
areas in the zone where elections were cancelled.
Adeyemi is said to have scored 80,118 votes while Melaye polled 59,548
and the difference between the contestants is 20,570. The number of
registered voters in the affected areas is 43,127.
The returning officer, Olayinde Lawal, who declared the election
inconclusive, said he is constrained by law not to declare a winner
because of the lead margin between the leading candidates.
He said INEC will announce a new date for the conduct of a
supplementary election in the 53 polling units before a winner can be
returned.


…Melaye loses nephew, rejects results

The Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kogi West
Senatorial District rerun election, Dino Melaye, has condemned the
results, calling it ‘fictitious’.
Mr. Melaye who spoke to journalists in Abuja, alleged that the
November 16 election was marred by compromise, extreme violence, and
rigging.
“The innovation is that what we had is what I have christened
‘Helicopter election’. For the first time, rigging has been advanced
to the level that now the use of a helicopter in perpetuating this
electoral atrocity manifested yesterday.
“Helicopter hovering around polling units in Lokoja, dropping bullets
on innocent, harmless citizens and electorate; and as I speak,
yesterday, teargas being fired from this helicopter.”
He added that the violence witnessed in his community should give the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reasons to stop the
collation of results on Sunday.
“Despite the fact that this helicopter was used in harassing,
intimidating and firing innocent electorates, the votes of those
places were carted away and taken to the government house, stuffed and
brought back to the collation centre and they have been accepted and
admitted and collation is ongoing.
“They brought mayhem on my own community and even killed my nephew, we
are waiting to see what INEC will do, but I reject in totality, this
fictitious result and I want to say that all these are not about the
election, it is about Dino Melaye,” he stated.
On October 11, the Appeal Court ordered a rerun election in Kogi West
Senatorial District between Senator Dino Melaye of the PDP and Senator
Smart Adeyemi of the APC.
In a similar vein, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in
the Kogi State governorship election, Musa Wada, has rejected the
exercise even before declaration of results by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Addressing a press conference, in Lokoja on Sunday, Wada alleged that
the results were all false.
He said what happened in the state over the weekend was neither
democracy nor a reflection of the wishes of the electorate.
He accused security agencies of colliding with INEC to undermine the
will of the people, describing it as a sad day for Kogi people.
“Imagine Okene LGA which used to return 40,000 votes in the past
elections suddenly brought out 112,000 votes while her neighbouring
Okehi also brought in 64,000, the figures that will be more than the
rest local governments in the state,” he said.
“It is the insincerity of the APC that has made the whole process a
sham… APC has taken Nigeria back to the dark days It is not about Wada
but of the suffering masses of the state. I am pained for the people
to continue to suffer for another four years.
“On whether I will get justice, it is a common knowledge about how all
the institutions have been bastardised by the APC government. However,
I have to exhaust all legal means to get redress. Look at how the
results were written by the agents of government and you can see that
Lokoja, the state capital which was agog yesterday is a shadow of its
self as nobody is celebrating.

“The results are not the true representation of what happened on the
field, figures are just been allocated. Our aim to contest is to
effect positive change which the people massively gave us their votes
before the government decided to kill the joy of the people.”


…foreign observers speak on violence

Some international observers who monitored the governorship elections
in Bayelsa and Kogi states have condemned the widespread violence
during the polls.
In a statement on Sunday, the observers, who are from Austria,
Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United
States, said some of their members witnessed violence and
intimidation.
They lamented the attempt to prevent the media, the electoral body as
well as civil societies from carrying out their duties during the
elections.
“We express our alarm at reports of widespread incidents of violence
and intimidation, some of which were witnessed by our teams in Kogi,”
the statement said.
“There are reports of fatalities and people missing, including INEC
staff. Our thoughts are with all victims and their families.
“We encourage all stakeholders, in particular political leaders, to
call for calm and we encourage security agencies to investigate
thoroughly and bring perpetrators to justice.
“We are also concerned by evident vote buying and credible reports of
ballot box snatching in both Bayelsa and Kogi. We commend the
commitment and resilience of voters in both states who came out to
exercise their democratic rights.
“We express our sympathy for those affected by the violence, including
ordinary voters; INEC officials; members of the NYSC; civil society;
and the media.
“All should be able to carry out their fundamental role in the
democratic process free from intimidation and harassment. As
Iong-standing friends, we have been present at every major election in
Nigeria since 1999. We remain committed to working impartially with
Nigerian authorities, INEC in particular, as well as civil society to
consolidate and deepen democracy.”
Similarly, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) said Nigeria
is degenerating into a “gunpoint democracy”.
Reacting to the widespread violence in the Bayelsa governorship poll,
the election analysis centre of the organisation said the integrity of
the election is in doubt.
CDD director, Idayat Hassan, said condemned the “coordinated
disruption of the voting process and the subsequent destruction of
electoral materials by armed thugs”.
“The very daring way and the manner in which the political thugs
disrupted the voting and destroyed materials in such a planned and
coordinated sequence, takes everything away from the credibility of
the process and its outcomes,” she said in a statement.“In large
numbers of polling units, the voting environment was so hostile and
unsafe, thereby scaring away eligible voters, who would only come out
to vote at the risk of losing their lives.

“Similar incidents were recorded in Otuan Ward 5 Southern Ijaw LGA,
where the election was materials hijacked by unknown thugs. Voting was
also disrupted after ballot boxes were hijacked in Yenizue Gene II,
Polling Unit II in Yenagoa LGA. CDD EAC observers further reported
incidents of sporadic gunfire in Opolo area of Yenagoa Local
Government, just one person reported injured, while two persons were
feared to have died after being shot.”


…Police confirm three deaths, say casualty list still being compiled

The police have confirmed the death of three persons during the
governorship election held in Kogi state on Saturday.
Commissioner of Police in Kogi, Akeem Busari, who confirmed the deaths
to reporters, said the command was still compiling its report on the
poll to ascertain the actual number of casualties.
Busari also said 10 persons were arrested across the state during the election.
He said three persons died in Lokoja, the state capital, when “armed
thugs” invaded St. Luke Primary School, Adanakolo, during the
election.
Busari, however, described the situation in the state as calm.


…30 missing INEC staff found

The 30 missing ad-hoc staff of the electoral commission, INEC, who
were reported missing have been found.
Online medium Premium Times reported how the ad-hoc staff were
declared missing around 1 a.m. on Sunday during the final collation of
results in Olamaboro local government.
An INEC spokesperson confirmed Sunday afternoon that they had been found.
“We can now confirm that all the 30 ad-hoc staff engaged for the 2019
Kogi Governorship election and posted to Polling Units 002, 006 and
013 at Olamaboro III; and Polling Units 006, 012, 015, 016, 022 at
Imani 1 all in Olamaboro Local Government Area have been accounted
for,” the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi,
said in a statement to the medium.
“The staff are safe, sound and back in their respective homes”.
He said the election-day duty staff could not be accounted for
initially following the violent attacks by some armed thugs at their
respective duty posts after the close of polls.
He also said the chairman of the INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, has personally
spoken with some of them and they confirmed that they are hale and
hearty.
He disclosed that the commission has established that none of them was
either injured or killed.
“They were able to successfully conclude the result collation process
before the commotion started
“The collated election results at Local Government Level are now being
announced at the State Collation Centre at the Commission’s State
Office in Lokoja,” he said.

Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button