The attempt to recall the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, has failed after the verified signatories to the petition f
The attempt to recall the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, has failed after the verified signatories to the petition for his recall fell short of requirements. For the verification exercise to succeed, 50 percent plus one of the signatories to the petition had to be verified. However, based on the results announced by Professor Ukertor Gabriel Moti, the Declaration Officer for the exercise held in the senatorial district on Saturday, only 18,742 of the 189,870 of the signatories to the petition for the Senator’s recall were verified by INEC.
Saturday’s verification exercise came months after the petition for Senator Melaye’s recall was submitted to INEC because of lawsuits filed by the Senator challenging the petition. A total of 189,870 signatories were on the petition, representing 54 percent of the 351,146 registered voters in the senatorial district which is comprised of seven local government areas including Lokoja, the state capital. When the exercise was finally held on Saturday, it was characterised by low turnout with some verification centres quiet hours later. By the time the verification ended by 2 pm and collation of results started talks of its failure had started spreading.
The low turnout for the exercise was most evident in Lokoja, which had the highest number of signatories on the recall petition – 66,266. Out of that number, only 4,810 people showed up for the verification with 3,763 verified. Had the verification exercise been successful, INEC would have proceeded with the recall process by holding a referendum. Talks about recalling the vocal Senator had started as far back as May last year. By June 11, 2017, the talks met some action with the commencement of the collation of signatures. Ten days later, the recall attempt gained momentum with the submission of the recall petition.
Melaye was unperturbed, describing the move as a “comedy of errors” which he claimed was sponsored by the Kogi State governor who he was at loggerheads with over the governance of the state.
