Kogi 2019 poll: Again, INEC declares Dino Melaye’s Kogi West Senatorial election “inconclusive’’

Again, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the Kogi West Senatorial election involving PDP’s Sen. Dino Melaye and Mr Smart Adeyemi of APC inconclusive.

The poll was generally marred by violence, fatalities and intimidation of the electorate.

Prof. Olayinde Lawal, the Returning Officer for the district, who declared the poll as inconclusive, said a new date for rerun would be announced soon.

He said rerun would be conducted at 53 polling units on the new date.

Adeyemi, a former Senator on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party and now a member of APC, had garnered 180, 118 votes while Melaye, whose election into Senate was nullified by the tribunal and the Appeal Court, scored 159, 548.

Melaye’s cousin, who was shot by armed thugs on Saturday during polling, died on Sunday in hospital.

He has rejected the outcome of the exercise which he described as “helicopter election’’.

“Helicopter was used in my constituency to perpetrate rigging, dropping of bullets, teargas on innocent citizens and intimidating them.

“For the first time in my life, I saw helicopter being used to rig election and ballot boxes carted away and later returned with ballots stuffed in them in the presence of security agents,’’ Melaye said.

The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mrs Natasha Akpoti, has called for the outright cancellation of the Kogi polls, alleging large scale rigging and manipulation.