The candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Dino Melaye has called for the cancellation of the Kogi State governorship election, describing the conduct of the exercise as “shameful”.
Dino Melaye said this during a press conference in Lokoja on Sunday just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) collates results for the poll.
“I will start by condemning in its totality the conduct of the elections yesterday and outrightly call for the total cancellation of the election because that was not an election,” He said.
He alleged that there was no election in five local governments of the central senatorial district in Kogi state and accreditation was done manually, the BVAS was not used.
Mr Melaye called on INEC as a matter of urgency to cancel the election.
In many areas where I won, my agents were told there were no available result sheets to enter the result and we have evidence to back up these claims.
The candidate of the All Progressive’s Congress (APC) Usman Ododo has been declared winner of the November, 11 governorship election in the state.
The State Returning Officer, Prof Johnson Urama, who is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, announced Ododo as the winner on Sunday.
Ododo polled a total vote of 446,237 to defeat his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who scored 259,052, while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 46,362 votes.
Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Ajaka also rejected the outcome of the poll, expressing disappointment in the entire process.
However, the commission in a swift response to the matter, gave assurance to Nigerians that it would look into the issue.
“Our attention has been drawn to a report that filled result sheets were discovered in some polling units in Kogi State,” the commission said on X. “The Commission views this situation seriously.” INEC stated.
