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Senator Dino Melaye has challenged Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to swear by the Quran if he was not aware of electoral manipulations in Kogi State on Saturday, November 11, 2023.
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came third in the Kogi governorship election has repeatedly insisted that the INEC boss had a hand in his electoral loss.
Describing the election as shameful, Melaye, while appearing on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Monday, November 13, 2023, maintained that Yakubu was the main problem of Nigeria’s democracy.
He said, “As I speak to you, I am completely ashamed that INEC had an opportunity to correct their deliberate mistakes in the last presidential election but instead, they have decided to compound the worries of Nigerians over our democratic process. What we saw yesterday was not a democracy. Mahmood Yakubu is the bane of the democratic development in the country, he is not capable of being a repentant soul.”
On Saturday, while the electoral process was ongoing, the commission announced the suspension of the process in nine wards after receiving reports of prefilled result sheets at some polling units in the areas.
In a statement signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, the National Commissioner and Member Information and Voter Education Committee, the electoral umpire affirmed that its reports indicated that electoral malpractices occurred in Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene Local Government Areas.
“The incidences in the other Local Government Areas are being thoroughly investigated, and the outcome, including the way forward, will be announced in the next 24 hours,” the statement read in part.
However, despite announcing its decision to suspend the process and investigate the irregularities in the affected areas, INEC went ahead to announce the final result and declared Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
Reacting to this, Melaye wondered why INEC declared a winner after promising to investigate the electoral irregularities that happened in the identified wards.
“Remember yesterday, when INEC made a statement, they said there were reported discrepancies in five local governments and that they were investigating it. INEC said they were investigating it and while they were investigating they went ahead to declare those local governments while we were waiting for the report of their investigation.”
Asked if he believes the INEC boss had a direct hand in his defeat, Melaye said the incumbent Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello would not have had access to INEC’s result sheets if Yakubu was not working for the Kogi State Government.
“How will Yahaya Bello have access to the original result sheets without Mahmood Yakubu’s cooperation? How will a youth corps member who is engaged on the day of election have ₦1m in her bag?” Melaye queried.
He further challenged the INEC Chairman to swear by the Quran if he did not receive reports about electoral irregularities in Kogi from the commission’s officials.
“Let Mahmood Yakubu swear by Holly Quran that there was no report by the field officers for cancellation in some LGAs in Kogi,” Melaye said.
The PDP candidate said he has obtained some evidence to prove that the Kogi governorship election was fraught with irregularities.
“You saw yesterday that a lot of corpers and agents were arrested with prefilled results sheets. I also have some results sheets, you’ll see how mutilated the result sheets are.”
According to him, in the mutilated result sheets, his votes were cancelled and reduced, while that of the APC were increased.
“I have about 10 of such results and there are more than 200 results all mutilated like this,” the PDP candidate alleged.