Melaye’s days numbered in Senate as 52.3% voters endorse recall

By Odunewu Segun

Controversial Senator, Dino Melaye, may be on his out of the Senate following the endorsement of his recall process by over 50 per cent voters in his Kogi west senatorial district.

National Daily gathered that a total of 188, 588 voters, representing 52.3 percent of the total number of registered voters in Kogi west senatorial district have reportedly approved the recall of Dino Melaye from the senate.

Announcing the result of the collation, Adamu Yusuf, the returning officer, said 188,588 out of the 360,098 in the senatorial district endorsed Melaye’s recall.

While giving the breakdown of the result per the seven local governments in the district, Yusuf said 18,374 of the total number of 35,331 registered voters in Yagba east approved the recall.

Others are 9,186, out of 18,356 voters in Mopa-Muro local government, 24,703 out of 46,810 voters in Yagba west, 63,736 out of 116,296 in Lokoja local government and 24,283 out of 46,819 in Ijumu local government.

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In Kabba/Bunu local government, 28,277 out of 60,520 voters endorsed the recall, while 24,703 out of 46,810 voters in Kogi local government voted for move to recall Melaye.

According to Yusuf, with this, the next move is to submit the document to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the next action.

Only 50 percent of the registered voters in the district are needed for the next stage of the recall process.

After receiving a petition from the voters, INEC would carry out a verification exercise to ensure that those who signed the petition are from the district.

Also speaking on the development, Special Adviser to the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, Pius Kolawole said the collation of signatures of voters to that effect was carried out successfully on June 17.

Kolawole commended voters in the district for turning out en-masse for the exercise, saying section 69 of the 1999 constitution backed their action. “In 2015, we voted for Dino and now we are using the same method to return him home,” he said.

Recall that Melaye had boasted that the move will fail, accusing Bello of releasing N200 million to each of the seven local government areas in Kogi west senatorial district to facilitate his recall from the senate.