The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) process 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.
The verified signatories represent 5.34 percent of the 351,146 registered voters in the Senatorial district.
After announcing the results, he 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.”
He said the results were signed by him and the two agents to the petitioners and the agent of Senator Melaye.
It was observed that the apathy which marred the exercise was witnessed across the senatorial district.
A registered voter at the polling unit on the premises of the Lokoja Club, Samuel Olokotun, protested against his wife’s name on the petition list, saying that the woman did not sign the recall sheet.
Miss Felicia Adebayo, a voter, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that she came out because she was told that money was being shared at the polling units.
Meanwhile, INEC said that it was not aware that Melaye was detained by the police.
The Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, disclosed that INEC had received no official communication regarding Melaye’s detention.
He said INEC had only been hearing about Melaye in the media.
Osaze-Uzzi, however, said Melaye’s recall process would not be affected by his absence or presence.
The INEC official said, “I don’t know if he is in detention. You are the one telling me.” – Channels, Punch.
