Melaye demands cancellation of Kogi governorship election over 'inflated votes' in APC's stronghold

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Kogi State governorship election, Senator Dino Melaye, has called for the cancellation of the election due to the “irregularities that marred the election.”

Melaye, in a press conference on Sunday in Lokoja, the state capital, said that the irregularities that marred the Saturday election in all three Senatorial Districts were unprecedented in the history of the state, and should not be allowed to stand.

He described the exercise as ‘shameful and unhealthy’, regretting that the Independent National Electoral Commission “has not learnt any lesson to realise, ameliorate and palliate the problem they created for the democratic process during the general elections in the country, still repeating the same in the governorship election.

“Yesterday in the five Local Governments of Central Senatorial districts in Kogi State, there was no election. In the end, surprisingly, accreditation was done manually. The BVAS was not used. Prepared sheets manifested even before accreditation and evidence is all over the media.

“INEC as a matter of urgency must cancel the election. In many areas where I won, my agents were told there were no available result sheets to enter the results and we have evidence to back up these claims

“As I speak to you, it is shameful that this is what our democracy has descended to. INEC has manifested ever than before, that they can not be trusted, they are biased, they are compromised and they can not be neutral umpire.

“There were deliberate suppression of my votes in Lokoja and Kogi Local Governments. This was deliberately done by Governor Yahaya Bello and APC to make sure that I didn’t come second.

“Because they do believe that there will be a second ballot and they believe if there is a second ballot, I have influence and tremendous support in the central and I can make an inroad in the East. So they preferred any other person to become second,” Senator Melaye said.