The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Kogi State, Dino Melaye, has alleged that the exact formula of the February 25 presidential election was used in Saturday’s gubernatorial election.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Usman Ododo, polled 446,237 votes to be declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came second with 259,052 votes, while Melaye scored 46,362.
Speaking during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday night, Maleye made a case for over-voting in 17 of the North Central state’s 21 local government areas (LGAs).
The former lawmaker alleged that unnamed political enemies in the opposition party held a meeting to decide ‘he must become a distant third’ because it would be dangerous if he came second.
The Kogi PDP candidate further claimed that votes were allocated to Ajaka in local government he won like the case of the presidential election where Labour Party was deliberately given Lagos State and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, was given Kano.
He said, “A meeting was held, and they said, ‘Dino Melaye must not come second because if he comes second, it’s dangerous… so, he must become a distant third.’ There was no election; there was only an allocation of votes.
“Normally, Ajaka should not be excited that he won one, two, or three local governments in the East. It was allocated.
“Lagos was given to Labour. Labour should not think they won [in] Lagos; it was deliberate. The mathematics was done. The arithmetic was done.
“Kwankwaso was given Kano, knowing fully well that other states had been padded.”