Issues that led INEC to declare Kogi West Senatorial election inconclusive

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) late Sunday declared the rerun of election in Kogi West Senatorial District held on Saturday as inconclusive because the margin of win was less than the total cancelled votes.

INEC said it would later announce a date for supplementary election in the areas affected

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The Commission announced that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Smart Adeyemi, scored a total of 80,118 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Dino Melaye, scored 59,548 votes.

The returning officer, Prof. Olayinde Lawal, said the margin between the candidates of the APC and Melaye is 20,570, adding that the total margin between both candidates was lower than the 43,127 registered voters in 53 polling units of 20 registration areas in the zone where elections were canceled.

He therefore declared the election inconclusive, saying a new date would be announced for a by-election.

Earlier on Sunday, Senator Melaye, had described results being collated for the election as ‘magic results’ and condemned the wantom killings that characterised the exercise and the governorship election in the state, in which his cousin was killed.

It would be recalled that Melaye on February 23 defeated Smart Adeyemi but the victory was recently nullified by the Election Petitions Tribunal and subsequently the Abuja division of the Appeal Court, which concurred with the lower court and ordered a fresh election.

While speaking to the media in his residence on Sunday, Melaye said he won the November 16 Kogi West rerun election and that figures were later manipulated in favour of his opponent.

“In the afternoon and by midnight, the APC manipulated the results,” adding that the manipulations were made possible through the machinery of the APC in the state with the support of Governor Yahaya Bello by unleashing “unprecedented violence” on voters and electoral officials.

According to him, over 70,000 valid votes were cancelled, saying it was left to be seen how INEC will announce a winner in the circumstance where the cancelled votes are more than the difference between the purported winner of the election and the runner-up.

“They did this by attacking my strongholds and then rig their strongholds. That is exactly what happened. They also went to Abuji where I am very strong politically and ensured that election did not take place there. There was sporadic firing of gunshots. 

“They went to Lokoja and carted away ballot boxes in over 10 polling units.‎ and went to another place and carted ballot boxes from over 12 units. But I am surprised that, INEC despite this violence, three people were shot and two died, four people were killed in Lokoja, seven were killed in the eastern part of the state. This is the record we have so far, apart from those who sustained gunshot wounds and those who were macheted and all that,” he said.

He said further that he was surprised that despite the level of violence and the alleged reported abduction of INEC staff, Youth Corps members, INEC is collating fictitious results, which he said will not be accepted as it did not reflect the realities of the situation.

“Meanwhile, in the ward of the Speaker Kogi State House of Assembly, Prince Kolawale, ‎where he led thugs to cart away Ballot Boxes. These Ballot Boxes were stuffed and brought back to the Collation Center and they were collated and admitted,” Melaye added.

He also alleged that, the results of Iyara, Adeyemi’s hometown was written while mayhem and violence was unleashed on his own home town of Aiyetoro Gbede which claimed the life of his Nephew, Olajuwonlo.

“The Electoral Act is clear, the Election Manual is very clear, that when the number of cancelled votes out-weights the number of votes between the winner and the loser, definitely, the election must be declared inconclusive. 

“We are waiting to see what INEC will do. ‎But I reject in totality these fictitious results. I Dino Melaye won that election in the afternoon and then APC won it at night. I won that election clearly and we have Polling Units results. We have collected all the Polling Units results and I won with a very wide margin,” Melaye said.