Deceased voters, governorship aspirant signed my recall, Dino Melaye alleges

Representative of Kogi West Senatorial district, Dino Melaye had alleged that a deceased former governorship aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rotimi Obadofin and hundreds of other dead electorate signed his recall from the senate.

He said Obadofin, who contested the state governorship election with the late Abubakar Audu and Governor Yahaya Bello but lost at the primaries, died on April 7, 2016 and had since been buried.

Briefing newsmen in Lokoja yesterday, Melaye, who was represented by his aide, Abubakar Sadiq, alleged the number of signatures were forged and fraudulently forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

His words: “Even the dead signed the recall across the seven local government areas of the senatorial district. Among the dead was the late Obadofin from Ijumu council.
“In Lokoja council area, several others whose names and signatures appeared on the list were identified and known to us as the late Abdullahi Abubakar (A.K.A Sarki), his late immediate younger sister, Halima Lawi Abubakar and Ibrahim Adams of unit code 021 Adankolo Ring Road in ward ‘A’ Lokoja council.”

Sadiq said if INEC proceeds on verification exercise they cannot achieve five per cent of the forged figures because those names and signatures were collated by proxy.The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Petra Onyegbule Akinti said the accusation was not worth giving any attention.

“The fact about the people that signed the register is with INEC. The electoral umpire has the responsibility of verifying the signatures. So it has nothing to do with the CPS or even the Kogi State Government,” she said.