The embattled senator representing Kogi West senatorial district of Kogi State, Dino Melaye, has alleged that the signatures of his constituents, which were collected for his recall, were forged and fraudulently forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Addressing newsmen at the press centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Lokoja on Sunday, Melaye said his investigation revealed that even signatures of dead persons were among those purportedly seeking his recall from the Senate.
For instance, Melaye, who spoke through one of his legislative aides, Mallam Abubakar Sadiq, claimed that the signature of the late Chief Yakubu Rotimi Obadofin, a former All Progressive Congress governorship aspirant from Ijumu Local Government Area, was included in the recall register.
“This recall exercise was hatched in the Government House due to the manner in which Senator Dino Melaye had consistently challenged and engaged the government of Kogi State over non-payment of workers’ salaries and pensioners for over 15 months so also the closure of tertiary institutions.”
“They claimed to have got over 188,000 signatures of the electorate in Kogi West, whereas the total vote cast in the last senatorial election of 2015 was merely 111,000 for all the candidates that participated at the election, both valid and rejected votes.
“For God’s sake, how could they have got such a figure, when people were not seen in most of the polling units visited during the said purported exercise?
“Should INEC proceed on the verification process, they cannot get up to five per cent of the total figure forged because those names and signatories were collated by proxy in various homes and the Government House.”
But the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, while reacting to the allegation, urged Melaye to stop worrying INEC.
The governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mrs. Petra Akinti, said, “The fact about the people that registered is with INEC. INEC has the responsibility of verifying the signatures; so, it has nothing to do with the Kogi State Government. “There is nothing for the distinguished senator to be worried about. INEC has set July 3rd for the public verification of signatures and the date is around the corner; there is no point burning their energies all over the place.
“We should all allow INEC to do the needful. So, there is nothing to get my reaction to.”
On the alleged collation of signatures in the Government House, Akinti said it was “absolutely false” because there was no day signatures were collated in the Government House.
But Melaye, while speaking on Saturday in Ughelli, Delta State, d uring an empowerment programme organised by the member representing Ughelli North, South and Udu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr. Solomon Ahwinahwi, insisted that Bello was behind the bid to get him recalled from the Senate.
