In reaction to the allegations that the process of collating the signatures needed for the recall of Dino Melaye – the Senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly – was fraudulent, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has asked the embattled Senator not to worry about INEC.
Senator Melaye last week alleged that governor Bello spent N1bn to sponsor the forgery of over 188,000 signatories of electorates in his constituency just to see him disgraced out of the red chamber.
However Bello, who spoke on Sunday through his Chief Press Secretary, Petra Onyegbule, said facts about the constituents were with INEC, which had the responsibility of verifying the signatures.
“There is nothing for the distinguished senator to be worried about. We plead with him to calm down. INEC has set July 3 for the public verification of signatures and the date is around the corner; there is no point burning energies all over the place,” the governor said.
Also speaking on Sunday through one of his legislative aides, Abubakar Sadiq, Dino said: “Let me also sound authoritatively that here in Lokoja Local Government Council, several others whose names and signatures appeared on the list of the signatories to this failed exercise were identified and known to us as being dead long before now.
“Such people like late Abdullahi Abubakar, his immediate younger sister late Halima Lawal Abubakar and Ibrahim Adama of Unit Code 021, Adankolo Ring Road in Ward ‘A’, Lokoja Local Government Council.
“Also one late Salihu Black of Gegu-Beki town, Kogi Local Government Council who until his death was a biology teacher in Government Secondary School, Koton-Karfe, also appended his signature on the recall list.
“This recall exercise was hatched in Kogi Government House due to the manner in which Senator Dino Melaye consistently challenges and engages the government over non-payment of workers’ salaries and pensioners for over 15 months; and also the constant closure of tertiary institutions ,” he stated.
On the alleged collation of signatures at Government House, Bello’s spokesperson said it was absolutely false as no single signature was collated there.
Onyegbule simply reiterated her earlier statement; maintaining that Melaye should stop worrying about INEC and wait for verification of the signatures in a few days.
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