The Concerned Kogi Registered Voters (CKRV) numbering 18, have filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from commencing verification of signatures collected in order to recall Senator Dino Melaye who is representing Kogi West Senatorial District.
Addressing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, the convener and secretary of the group, Olowosayo Gabriel Sunday and Amupitan Babayomi Segun claimed that names of dead persons and people who do not reside in the district appeared on the recall register submitted to INEC.
The applicants, who faulted 188,000 signatures which were submitted to INEC, noted that while 111,534 voted in the general election in Kogi West, the total number of registered voters in Kogi West is 360,098.
According to a copy of the motion which was made available to newsmen, INEC which is the first respondent was sued alongside eight other respondents, comprising some aides of the state governor, Yahaya Bello and state lawmakers from the senator’s district.
In their application, the plaintiffs said, “that 2nd to 9th respondents fraudulently opened a recall register and signed signatures for registered voters in Kogi West Senatorial District.
“That some of the names of the registered voters that appeared in re said recall register were dead voters and some voters who were not even residing at Kogi State and they were at different parts of the country when the purported signatures were fraudulently collated by the 2nd and 9th respondents.”
However, the convener of the indigenes, Olowosayo Gabriel Sunday, who is also the first applicant in the suit, said, “That as at the last announcement, INEC itself agreed and announced a figure of PVC collection in Kogi West that is far less than the alleged 188,000.
“That we are aware that there is possible connivance between the people on the recall agenda and INEC because we have evidence of photograph of PVCs in thousands gathered together for the recall, an act contrary to the electoral act.”
He added that the move was a desperate attempt to recall Melaye. – Daily Trust.
