Panic in Dino’s Camp as Constituents Submit Recall Petition to INEC

The embattled Senator, representing Kogi West at the Senate, Sen. Dino Melaye.

The camp of Senator Dino Melaye, the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District is said to have been thrown into a state of shock as the process of his recall has been concluded. We leant that Sen. Melaye had considered the process, which began a couple of weeks back, a gross waste of time by those who initiated it, while accusing the State’s henchman, Gov. Yahaya Bello as being the mastermind of the plot.

According to sources, Dino had not given any importance to the process, believing it to go the usual “Nigerian way”. However, with its successful conclusion and subsequent submission of a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, demanding his recall from the Senate by his constituents at the Kogi West Senatorial District on Wednesday, June 21^st 2017, it has suddenly dawned on the Senator and his camp that indeed the recall process was real, and his political future may be uncertain.

A leader of the constituents, Cornelius Olowo, told the News Agency of Nigeria at the INEC headquarters, shortly after submitting the petition, that the electorate in Melaye’s constituency were resolved to recall him.

He said that the petition, which had signatures of more than 52 per cent of the electorate in the area, was submitted at the office of INEC Chairman.

Mr. Olowo said that the move to recall Malaye was based on his “abysmal performance’’ since he was elected to represent the district in 2015.

He accused the senator of distancing himself from his constituents, saying that the lawmaker’s performance was low.

“In the last two years, some senators have been meeting with their people quarterly. They update them on what has been happening and seek their contributions on issues and their aspirations to be presented at the senate.

“For the past two years, Senator Malaye has not organised one town hall meeting anywhere in Kogi West to meet with the people to present his scorecard or stewardship.

“He has been completely disconnected from the people. Since he won his election and the legal battle at the court, he is no longer reachable.

“He has no constituency office in Kogi West as we speak, as a way to reach him on matter of interests from the people that elected him,” Mr. Olowo said.

He said that the petition had signatures of registered voters in the senatorial district, who endorsed the recall.

“We have over 360,000 registered voters in Kogi West and after about one week of collection of signatures, we were able to gather over 188,500 signatures, endorsing the recall of the senator.

“We have submitted the petition at the office of INEC Chairman. It is now left for INEC to go and do confirmation of the signatures before going on the process needed for the recall,” he said.

On the allegation that the state governor, Yahaya Bello, was sponsoring the recall and that people fought over the money disbursed for the exercise, Mr. Olowo said it was untrue.

He said that the genuineness of the demand would be confirmed when INEC would visit the area for confirmation of the signatories.

He expressed optimism that INEC would do what was required of it over the petition.

The Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, confirmed the receipt of the petition by the commission.

“Yes, such petition was submitted today (Wednesday),’’ he told NAN in a short message reply on telephone.

The Nigerian law requires 50 per cent of registered voters in an area to sign to recall a lawmaker.

Mr. Melaye has since condemned the move, saying it would fail and was being sponsored by Kogi Governor Yahya Bello.

About 188,588 voters, representing 52.3 per cent of the total number of registered voters in Kogi West senatorial district, have reportedly approved the recall of Dino Melaye from the Senate.

The Special Adviser to the State Governor on Political Affairs, Pius Kolawole, announced this on Monday in Lokoja while addressing party members from the district.

He said that the collation of signatures of voters to that effect was carried out successfully on June 17.

Mr. Kolawole commended voters in the district for turning out en masse for the exercise, saying that Section 69 of the 1999 constitution backed their action.

“In 2015, we voted for Dino and now we are using the same method to return him home,” he said.

Announcing the result of the collation, the Returning Officer, Adamu Yusuf said that 188,588 out of the 360,098 in the senatorial district endowed Melaye’s recall.

While giving the breakdown of the result per the seven local governments in the district, Mr. Yusuf said that 18,374 of the total number of 35,331 registered voters in Yagba East approved the recall.

Others are 9,186, out of 18,356 voters in Mopa-Muro local government; 24,703 out of 46,810 voters in Yagba West; 63,736 out of 116,296 in Lokoja Local Government; and 24,283 out of 46,819 in Ijumu Local Government.

In Kabba/Bunu Local Government, 28,277 out of 60,520 voters endorsed the recall, while 24,703 out of 46,810 voters in Kogi Local Government voted for move to recall Melaye.

NAN