- Melaye seeks postponement of supplementary poll
- Chuks Okocha in Abuja
President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa has constituted Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal to handle petitions from November 16, Kogi State governorship poll.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by secretary of the tribunal, Mr. Umar Abubakar and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja, the state capital.
According to Abubakar, the mandate of the tribunal is to hear and determine petitions that may arise from Kogi State governorship election held on Saturday November 16, 2019.
He said the tribunal will also handle petitions arising from the forthcoming supplementary and re-run election in Kogi West Senate seat and Ajaokuta Federal Constituency scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 30.
Abubakar added that the secretariat of the tribunal was located at FCT High Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja and called on those wishing to file election petitions to approach the secretariat.
Meanwhile, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Kogi West senatorial election, Senator Dino Melaye, has called for the postponement of the supplementary election scheduled for November 30.
Melaye made the call while addressing journalists at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, where he had gone to submit another petition on the election.
He called on INEC to postpone the election, until it was able to address what he described as ‘noticeable infractions’ in the November 16 election and concerns over areas where the supplementary election would be held.
Melaye had, on November 20, submitted a petition, calling for total cancellation of the election, to which he attached 21 video CDs and other documentary evidence to prove that there was no election in the senatorial district.
He said he was at INEC office because he had yet to get a reply to his earlier petition, adding that there was also no public announcement that a panel was set up to investigate the issues raised in the petition.
Melaye said he was also there to submit additional facts to those in his earlier petition, which, according to him, were unknown to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
“What is new in what we have submitted today is that we have attached a copy of Form EC8B of Ward A in Lokoja Local Government Area, where INEC, during collation, had cancelled results of nine out of 23 polling units in the LGA.”
He added that results were cancelled in other polling units during collation, including Abugi, Ole and other places, but these were not captured among the areas where INEC said that supplementary poll would take place on November 30.
“What we are saying is: how can INEC cancel these polling units during collation process and they will not be captured in places where rerun will take place?
“We believe this is an aberration, and the INEC chairman cannot know about it and allow it to stay.”
Melaye said there were also lots of places where elections were supposed to have been cancelled by INEC, but which were not.
These, he said, included Lokogoma and Adanko in Lokoja, where, he said, three people were killed during the Nov. 16 election.
“Unfortunately, results were returned in those places. We are saying that INEC must be neutral and cancel elections in areas where there were violence.”
Another infraction cited by Melaye was that in Koko Quarters, Aiyetoro-Gbede, Ward 1 in Ijumu LGA, the election was peaceful, result collated, declared and won by the PDP, but was now part of the areas where the supplementary would take place on Saturday.
Another error, Melaye said, was that the unit was listed under Egbeda-Ega ward, adding that he could not understand why this was so.
“I want to say that with all these fractions put together, INEC must, as a matter of transparency and national interest, postpone the Saturday supplementary election.”
Melaye said he was not calling for any support or cooperation, but just wanted INEC to do the needful by cancelling elections in areas where there were cases of violence and ballot box snatching and conduct fresh elections where results were cancelled.
The former senator was accompanied by PDP leaders in Kogi West, including Deputy Chief of Staff to a former President and one-time governorship aspirant in the state, Mr. Olushola Akanmode.
