The plan to recall the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, has failed after the verified signatories to the petition for his recall fell short of requirements.
The result of the verification released early Sunday in Lokoja by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed that 39,285 of the signatories were verified, out of which only 18,762 signatures were genuine.
According to the results announced by Professor Ukertor Gabriel Moti, the Declaration Officer for the exercise held in the senatorial district on Saturday, only 18,742 of the 189,870 of the signatories to the petition for the Senator’s recall were verified by INEC.
The verified signatories represent 5.34 percent of the 351,146 registered voters in the Senatorial district.
After announcing the results, he said: , “I Professor Ukertor Gabriel Moti, affirm that the information on verification of signatures to the petition for the recall of Senator Dino David Melaye of Kogi West Senatorial District has taken place on this day, 28th day of April 2018, and that the verified signatures is 5.34 percent of the total number of registered voters in the constituency and has therefore not satisfied a requirement of the law for a referendum.”
He said the results were signed by him and the two agents to the petitioners and the agent of Senator Melaye.
It was observed that the verification failed largely due to fictitious and forged signatures and names of dead persons affixed to the recall petition by its promoters.
Some electorate in the Kogi West senatorial district had on June 24, 2017 submitted a petition to recall Melaye to the headquarters of the INEC in Abuja.
For the verification exercise to succeed, 50 percent plus one of the signatories to the petition had to be verified.
