The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the senatorial election in Kogi West district inconclusive.


The electoral umpire said the declaration is due to the fact that the margin between Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is lower than the number of registered voters in 53 polling units of 20 registration areas in the zone where elections were cancelled.

Mr Adeyemi is said to have scored 80,118 votes while Mr Melaye polled 59,548 is 20,570. The number of registered voters in the affected areas is 43,127.

The returning officer, Olayinde Lawal, who declared the election inconclusive, said he is constrained by law not to declare a winner because of the lead margin between the leading candidates.

He said INEC will announce a new date for the conduct of a supplementary election in the 53 polling units before a winner can be returned.

Mr Melaye has already rejected the results.

PREMIUM TIMES and other local observer groups had also reported that the election in Kogi State was marred by violence and vote-buying.

Two observer groups, YIAGA and Situation Room, have called for the total cancellation of the elections held in Kogi on Saturday. The state’s governorship election and the Kogi West senatorial rerun election were held on Saturday.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/363846-just-in-inec-declares-kogi-west-senatorial-election-inconclusive.html

Kogi election na audio election.. Wetin concern me sef

Another lifeline for Dino. He will at least have a lil hope

Dino lost this already. Distinguished Senator Smart Adeyemi is the choice of the people.

Sadly there is no different btw smart and Dino. Kogi people so unfortunate of leadership.

seunmsg:
Dino lost this already. Distinguished Senator Smart Adeyemi is the choice of the people.

The margin of lead is 20,570 and the total number of registered voters in the affected areas is 43,127. There is no way Dino can pull this through.

Definitely, not all of the 43,127 registered voters have collected their PVCs, even if we believe that they are still all alive and have not changed location. And not all the ones that have the PVCs will turn out to cast their votes on election day.

Whatever level of mobilization put in place by both parties, hardly will 20,000 of the registered voters turn out to vote. I seriously doubt if up to 20,000 voters would come out.

So, how can Dino Melaye secure 20,170 votes to fill the gap between him and Smart Adeyemi? Dino knows this quite well, that's why he has taken the option of rejecting the outcome of the election outrightly.

He can only participate to at least reduce the margin and hope to get the court cancel some of Adeyemi's votes and declare him winner of valid votes cast eventually. And that will be almost an impossible task for him to achieve. He himself cannot say that all of the votes he secured are valid votes. Whichever way it goes, Dino Melaye is out of the Senate for good.