Politics

Yahaya Bello fails to recall Melaye

Published

8 years ago

April 29, 2018

Embattled Senator representing Kogi West senatorial district, Dino Melaye has survived the attempt to have him recalled by the governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello.

Recall that since 2017 when the rift between the governor and the senator became public, Melaye had accused the governor of instigating electorates in Kogi west senatorial district to have him recalled.

After several failed court attempts to have the process ditched by the embattled senator, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) finally got the go ahead, and the recall process fixed for Saturday, April 28.

However, National Daily gathered that out of the 189,870 signatories to the petition to recall him from the upper legislative chamber, only 18,742 were verified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday.

The verified signatories represent 5.34 percent of the 351,146 registered voters in Kogi west, thereby not meeting the required criteria.

For the verification exercise to succeed, 50 percent plus one of the signatories to the petition had to be verified.

Announcing the result of the verification exercise on Sunday morning, Ukertor Moti, the declaration officer for the exercise, said a referendum — the next step in the recall process — will not be held.

More to follow…