Kogi: Melaye, Wada, Akpoti React To Governorship, Senatorial Elections

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) in Saturday’s Kogi governorship election, Musa Wada, has described the results so far released by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a sham.

He rejected the results saying it did not reflect the wishes of the people who willingly cast their votes for him.

He urged all lovers of democracy to join hands with the PDP in the condemnation of the entire process.

While addressing journalists in Lokoja on Sunday flanked by his running mate, Sam Aro, Mr Wada decried what he tagged as the “militarisation of the election” alleging that security agents colluded with the APC to harass and intimidate voters.

He said the whole exercise was a daylight robbery as results were written everywhere for the APC.

“It is better for the government not to in the first place conduct the election when it knows it will not reflect the wishes of the people,” he said.

Mr Wada also accused the Commissioner of Police of relocating to Dekina collation centre to influence the elections in favour of the APC.

Mr Wada won nine of the 19 local government areas declared so far, scoring a total of 168, 144votes as against the APC candidate and governor of the state, Yahaya Bello, who scored 375,083 votes across 10 states.

Also the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Natasha Akpoti, has called for the outright cancellation of the election, saying it was a “civil war” imposed on the Kogi people by Mr Bello.

She said violence and thuggery inflicted on the people on election day should not be allowed to go without a penalty.

She said the results were a product of massive rigging.

Mrs Akpoti scored a total vote of 8539 votes from the 19 local government areas declared so far.

The candidate of the PDP in the Kogi West senatorial seat, Dino Melaye, also shared the view of the SDP, calling on INEC to cancel the election,

While reacting to the outcome of the election, Mr Melaye said he was surprised that INEC was busy declaring election which saw people dead and violence unleashed on the party.

He said the elections should be cancelled as they were heavily rigged.

Although the results of two local government areas were yet to be declared, it is obvious that Mr Bello is in a clear lead and most likely to emerge the winner.

The elections across the state were largely marked by violence, ballot box snatching, and vote-buying which left at least four persons dead.

Many observers reported the extent of violence and vote-buying that characterized the elections.

At least two observer groups, YIAGA and Situation Room, have called for the outright cancellation of the election.

But the National Commissioner for Voter Education, Media and Publicity, Festus Okoye, said the issue of cancellation of the results was beyond INEC, saying only the collation and return officers had the powers to make any pronouncement on the election.

He told Channels Television on Sunday that the commission did what it was required to do by law, and other stakeholders were required to play their roles to ensure a peaceful election.

The APC, which is set to win the Kogi governorship election, has however commended the process and the security operatives for their efforts. The party accused the PDP of trying to instigate violence when it knew it could not win the election.