Melaye cries out as Adeyemi leads
Tony Akowe, Lokoja
SENATOR Dino Melaye’s hope of returning to the Senate may have been dashed.
Early results from Saturday’s senatorial election indicate that he may have lost to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Smart Adeyemi.
Unofficial results showed that Senator Melaye lost in almost all the local government areas (LGAs) in the district, except in Yagba East and Yagba West.
Melaye was trailing Adeyemi after the results of five of seven local governments in the district were announced.
It was gathered that the result from Lokoja LGA was left to be added before the final result is announced.
Adeyemi is leading Melaye with about 14,533 votes in the five LGAs, it was learnt.
The Nation gathered that the result will be announced after the final governorship election results have been declared.
It was learnt that the Senatorial result will be announced in Lokoja as against Kabba, headquarters of the senatorial district.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was said to have obtained a court injunction to announce the result in Lokoja.
Senator Melaye rejected the exercise, describing it as “helicopter election” for being “marred by compromise, extreme violence, and rigging”.
His words: “The innovation is that what we had is what I have christened ‘helicopter election’. For the first time, rigging has been advanced to the level that now uses a helicopter in perpetuating this electoral atrocity.
“Helicopter was hovering around polling units in Lokoja, dropping bullets on innocent, harmless citizens and electorate; and teargas was being fired from this helicopter.
“Even though this helicopter was used in harassing, intimidating and firing at innocent electorate, the votes of those places were carted away and taken to the government house, stuffed and brought back to the collation centre and they have been accepted and admitted and collation is ongoing.
“They brought mayhem on my community and even killed my nephew. We are waiting to see what INEC will do, but I reject in totality, this fictitious result and I want to say that all these are not about the election, it is about Dino Melaye.”
- Nation
