The Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Dino Melaye , on Saturday demanded the cancellation of the elections which were held in five Local Government Areas of the state.
The LGAs, according to Melaye are Okene, Okehi, Ajaokuta, Adavi, and Ogori/Mangogo.
The candidate alleged that the results from the units were compromised.
Melaye, in a post on hisX account @-Dinomelaye, described the exercise in the five council areas as a coordinated scam by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said: “INEC must cancel the election in the 5 local governments of Kogi-Central. The election in Okene, Okehi, Ajaoukuta, Adavi, and Ogori/Mangogo is a scam coordinated from the highest level of INEC.”
Addressing Journalists at his residence Saturday evening, Melaye said there has been massive protests in Ogori/Mangogo since the beginning of the election on Saturday due to the refusal by INEC officials to show polling agents the result sheets.
“The result sheets had been tampered with and filled before the election. People are refusing to vote insisting that the result sheets must be shown to them because we heard the results had been written before the exercise. We have told our party agents to insist on seeing the result sheets and if they refuse to show, there should be no voting there,” he said.
Melaye had refused to show up at his polling unit situated at Iluafon quarters, Aiyetoro 1, Ijumu Local Government Area of the state throughout voting period on Saturday.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had also visited his polling units.
Voters in Ogori/Magongo had told reporters that INEC officials were not ready to conduct the election according to the law guiding the exercise as they arrived polling units without the result sheets.
A resident of the town told our reporter that the election was not holding in Ogori/Magongo because of claims that thumb printing took place elsewhere over the night of Friday till the early hours of Saturday, which is the official election day.
This informed their decision to stage wild protest on Saturday.
“The election here has been cancelled. The protest has made the INEC officials call off their staff. In all polling units in Ogori/Magongo local government no election took place today”
While the protest was going on, already filled INEC election result sheets surfaced in the community later in the day, The Advocate learnt.
A man was arrested by protesting residents for dropping the already filled result sheets from one polling unit to another.
A search on him and his bag led to the discovery of other result sheets and One mullion naira. The man identified as APC member, has since been handed over to security agents.
Dino, alongside the candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Leke Abejide, popularly referred to as “Elder” are the two major candidates gunning for the position of governor from the Kogi West Senatorial District.
Electoral observers say Abejide who is a serving lawmaker may affect Dino’s chances at the governorship polls.
Kogi-West, which Dino hails from has never produced a governor since the inception of the state.
