The Senator representing Kogi West Constituency in the Senate, Dino Melaye, has survived the bid of some dissatisfied members of his constituency to recall him. The exercise, which was held on Saturday last week in Lokoja, had only 18,742 of the 189,870 of the signatories to the petition for the Senator’s recall verified by INEC.
The verified signatories represent 5.34 percent of the 351,146 registered voters in the Senatorial district.
Announcing the result of the exercise, the Declaration Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared: “I, Professor Ukertor Gabriel Moti, affirm that the information on verification of signatures to the petition for the recall of Senator Dino David Melaye of Kogi West Senatorial District has taken place on this day, 28th day of April 2018, and that the verified signatures is 5.34 percent of the total number of registered voters in the constituency and has therefore not satisfied a requirement of the law for a referendum.”
The recall exercise, however, was not devoid of irregularities, as INEC bemoaned the poor turnout of petitioners for the exercise, just as violence prevented the exercise from holding in some polling unit. Speaking to newsmen shortly after the exercise on Saturday, the INEC Commissioner in-charge of Kogi State, Mohammed Haruna, said that INEC should not be held responsible if the wish of the constituency to recall the embattled Senator is not granted. Mr Haruna, who claimed that INEC was transparent in the exercise, said that the turnout of the signatories in the petition to recall Mr Dino Melaye from the Senate was unexpectedly low. He, however, maintained INEC’s neutrality in the exercise. “Turnout is not our problem; turnout is the problem of parties concerned, ours is to ensure transparency.
Whatever happened at the polling units is what INEC will announce,” he said. However, Mr Haruna, who lauded the peaceful conduct of the people before and during the exercise, agreed that there was a mix up in the list of the petitioners.
He insisted that the mistakes were unavoidable, but that they will be corrected. It could be recalled that Senator Dino Melaye, who is presently hospitalized in Abuja, following injuries he sustained from allegedly jumping out of a moving police car that was transporting him to Lokoja; to face some criminal charges that were levelled against him by the police, was petitioned by some of his constituents for not representing them satisfactorily, and they had gone ahead to initiate the recall process in June, 2017.
However, Mr Dino Melaye, who has been at daggers drawn with Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, and had accused the governor of being the brain behind the plot to recall him from the Senate, had mobilised his supporters to resist the move, as well as seeking a court injunction to stop the petitioners. Last Saturday’s recall exercise was borne out of the failure of Mr Dino Melaye to get a verdict from the Court of Appeal to stop the exercise.
