Move to recall Sen Melaye heats up as 52.1%, above INEC requirement vote in favour

The Senator representing Kogi West senatorial district at the Senate, Dino Melaye, seems to be in real problem as 188,588 electorate, (52.1 per cent) have signed the pettition for his recall.

The Independent National Electoral Commission’s requirement for him to be recalled is said to be 50.1 per cent.

But a total of 188,588 people from Kogi West senatorial district have reportedly endorsed the recall of the senator from the Senate.

The senatorial district had two weeks ago begun the process of recalling Melaye as electorates from across the seven local government councils daily queued to formally sign for his recall.

According to a chieftain of Melaye’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the district, Pious Kolawole, the electorate has a law that give them power to recall their representatives if they have genuine reasons to do so, he told the people on Monday at the state party secretariat in Lokoja.

He noted that the process of recalling Melaye was not just an APC affair but an action that cuts across all political parties that registered and voted during the election in Kogi West.

He said, “We have collated the wards registration which was done in Kabba, the headquarters of the district. Alhaji Yahaya Bello is our governor, our leader and our father, but let me tell you that he has no hand in the recall of Melaye.

“We asked the state government not to intervene in the matter because it is purely the electorate from the district who have decided to recall him based on cogent reasons.”

The returning officer for the recall of Melaye, Mallam Ademu Yusuf, who announced the result from the seven local government areas, explained that the collation was done last Saturday in Kabba, the headquarters of Kogi West senatorial district.

He gave a breakdown of the voting as Yagba East, out of 35,331 registered voters, 18,374 signed while in Yagba West, out of 35,966 registered voters, 20,029 signed.

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In Mopa-Amuro, out of 18,356 registered voters, 9,186 signed; Kabba-Bunu has 60,522 registered voters, 28,277 signed; Kogi has 46,810 registered voters, 27,703 signed, Lokoja has 116,296 registered voters, 63,736 signed while in Ijumu, out of 46,819 registered voters, 24,283 signed.

According to Yusuf, out of the 360,098 total number of registered voters in all the seven local government areas, 188,588 registered voters signed the recall of Melaye.

He then said, “Constitutional requirement for recall is 50.1 per cent of the registered voters and already we have 52.1 per cent.”

Melaye has constantly accused his state governor, Yahaya Bello, as being behind the plot to recall him. Both the senator and the governor have remained enemies, even as the senator alleged that Bello was behind an assassination attempt on his life early this year.

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