Embattled Senator gets backing from Okun group

The Okun Development Initiative has backed representative of Kogi-West senatorial district, Senator Dino Melaye against an ongoing recall campaign against him.

A total of 188,580 electorates have signed the recall register in a bid to sack the senator from his position.

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The senator has received backing from the Okun group in a statement signed by the group's chairman, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, a former Minister of Health, claiming it is a forgery.

"The Okun Development Initiative, a prominent socio-cultural association from the western part of Kogi State, declares that the signatures being bandied about as those of the constituents of Senator Dino Melaye, seeking to recall him, are actually not from Kogi-West, the district Melaye represents in the Senate.

"The prerogative of any constituent to exercise his or her constitutionally guaranteed right to recall is inalienable but it is obvious the initiators and instigators of the current attempt against Senator Dino Melaye are not from Kogi-West but lackeys and cronies of constituted authority, an apparent outcome of misguided advice to those insistent on dividing and decimating Okun land politically for egoistic purposes.

"Selfish political aspirations are being satiated to the detriment of the collective good of Okun people with Okunland primed for another political experiment and some of our sons and daughters have become willing lab rats.

"The precarious situation of Okun persons in the vanguard of the recall saga is not only pitiable but pathetic but our elders admonish that when sent a slavish message, the virtuous will deliver same like a freeborn.

"The gauge of loyalty is now synonymous with treachery and understandably so for those who cannot fathom life outside political office or patronage from government.

"The modalities that procured the purported signatures from investigations are fraught with lots of irregularities and illegalities.

"Consequently, we wish to state unequivocally that any calculated attempt to cause chaos and avoidable confusion in Okunland will be resisted legally with all the resources at our disposal."

ALSO READ: Many people will go to jail for forgery over my recall - Senator

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has acknowledged receipt of the petition and notified Melaye who has dismissed it as a vindictive campaign against him by Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello.