Dino Melaye denies rumours he is planning to boycott next Saturday supplementary elections

SENATOR Dino Melaye has denied rumours that he intends to boycott the scheduled election run-off in Kogi West Senatorial District due to take place on Saturday November 30 in protest of polling irregularities.

On Saturday November 15, voters in  Kogi West Senatorial District went to the polls to participate in the rescheduled elections after Nigerian Court of Appeal had nullified the original ones that took place in February. In what was a two-horse race between Senator Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former senator, Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the elections was characterised with thuggery, ballot box snatching, violence and intimidation.

As a result, Inec declared the results inconclusive, saying that there needs to be re-runs in some polling units where irregularities took place. However, Senator Melaye visited Inec’s headquarters in Abuja last week, asking that the whole election be scrapped and a fresh set of polls conducted.

Inec, has however, decided to proceed with the elections saying that fresh polling will only take place in those units where there was disruption, ballot box snatching and the cancellation of results. So far, Senator Adeyemi has a total of 80,118 votes, while Senator Melaye scored 59,548 votes.

It had been rumoured that as a result of the Inec decision, Senator Melaye was planning to boycott the polls but he has denied this, saying he will participate. Senator Melaye said the reports making the rounds was a misrepresentation as he and his party will not shy away from the re-run on Saturday despite what he described as falsified results.

Senator Melaye said: “The reports about me boycotting Saturday’s election is just the imagination of APC. We never said we are boycotting the election.

“The PDP only rejected the results of the past election. The PDP is the people’s party and will never shy away from political participation though we know they are not credible and fair.

“PDP respects the constitutionalism of democracy and will never boycott election even though figures from Kabba local government area are wrong. I will not boycott Saturday’s election.”