Kogi INEC begins Melaye’s recall process

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kogi State has started the recall process of Senator Dino Melaye.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Prof. James Apam has disclosed.

He said the commencement followed the appeal court ruling that INEC could commence the recall process.

He said the commission has fixed the last Saturday of April as the verification date.

It also fixed the first Saturday in the month of May as the day that a referendum would be conducted in line with the electoral laws.

At a stakeholders forum yesterday, Apam said: “On that day, the commission would invite all those who had signed the recall register to come forward and identify their signature.”

According to him, if that process succeeds, the commission would proceed to the next stage, where a referendum of all registered voters would be conducted.

“Here, voters would be asked to vote either yes or no, to the question of whether they want Senator Melaye, representing Kogi West, to be recalled.

“If the answers meet the constitutional requirements of 50 plus 1 yes, the process would move to the next stage. But if it fails, it would stop,” he explained.

The Appeal Court had last week thrown out Melaye’s suit challenging the move to recall him.

The embattled Senator has vowed to proceed to the Supreme Court to stop INEC from proceeding with the recall process.

Apam stressed that INEC will not do anything outside the dictate of the law; hence it had to wait till after the appeal court judgment before continuing the process.

On the continuous voters registration, Apam said 210,000 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) have not been collected from the INEC Headquarters in Lokoja.

He disclosed that the commission has achieved 33 per cent success with a total of 70, 411 registered voters.

He said 3, 434 applied for the transfer of their voters’ cards, while 3,755 sought the replacement of their damaged PVCs.

He added that 26, 395 PVCs have so far been distributed, and urged those involved to come forward to collect their cards.