THE Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for governor of Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye, has stated that some political rivals convened to determine that “he must become a distant third” in the hotly contested election on Saturday.
Melaye maintained during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today that over-voting occured in 17 of the 21 local government areas (LGAs) in the North Central state.
“A meeting was held and they said, ‘Dino Melaye must not come second because if he comes second, it’s dangerous… so, he must become a distant third.’ There was no election; there was only allocation of votes,” he alleged.
Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 446,237 votes and was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came second with 259,052 votes, while Melaye scored 46,362.
“Normally, Ajaka should not be excited that he won one, two, or three local governments in the East. It was allocated,” Melaye said.
According to the former lawmaker, the same thing happened in the February 25 presidential election.
“Lagos was given to Labour,” he said. “Labour should not think they won [in] Lagos; it was deliberate. The mathematics was done. The arithmetic was done.”
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate for 2023, Rabiu Kwankwaso, was “given Kano, knowing full well that other states had been padded,” the Kogi PDP candidate continued.
According to Melaye, this was the “exact same formula that was used in Kogi State.”
