Melaye’s recall suffers setback in Mopamuro, result sheets hijacked

The recall verification exercise of the senator representing Kogi West, Mr Dino Melaye has suffered a setback in Mopamuro Local Government Area of the state as the exercise recorded a very low turnout of petitioners.

The exercise which lasted for six hours from 8am to 2pm, was very peaceful, free, fair and credible as the scanty petitioners were seeing verifying their signature with low turnout.

In Ward 01 (Units: 001; 002; 003) , Ward 03 (Units: 01; 02; and some other units in other wards, only 20 to 25 per cent of the petitioners were recorded as counted by the poll officers.

However, one polling unit each in Ward 06 and 07, Orokere and Takete-Ide respectively recorded 40 and 45 per cent turnout while only one polling unit recorded 90 per cent turnout (103 out of 110 petitioners.

Many voters expressed their displeasure over the appearance of their names on the recall register, saying they were shocked because they never at anytime signed any document for Melaye’s recall.

One of the voters at Ward 06, unit 04, Mrs Funmilayo Ojo, said that she was surprised to see her name among the petitioners, saying “it shall not be well with the perpetrators of such act”.

However, some hoodlums attacked INEC office in Mopamuro Local Government, disrupting the collation of results, shooting in the air, damaging vehicles and escaping with results sheets, while the INEC staff fled for safety.

One of the INEC staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that the hoodlums were political thugs who accompanied an aide of Gov. Yahaya Bello to the INEC office to challenge the outcome of the verification exercise as it did not favour them.