Adeyemi Defeats Melaye, Wins Kogi West Senatorial Rerun  

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

The candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi West senatorial re-run, Senator Smart Adeyemi has defeated his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Senator Dino Melaye in a keenly contested supplementary election that ended last night.

Although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not declared Adeyemi winner of the election, the APC candidate got a total of 8,265 votes.

In the supplementary election, Dino Melaye polled 2,585 votes.

In Lokoja, Adeyemi got 4,659 votes ahead of Melaye’s 920. In Mopa Moruo, the APC candidate had 309 votes, while his PDP rival secured just nine votes.

Although Melaye led with a small margin in Koton Karfe and Ijumu, where both men hail from, his loss in the two other LGAs affected his stand in the election.

Melaye secured 376 votes in Koton Kafe local government while Adeyemi trailed with 287 votes.

In Ijumu, the PDP candidate got 577 votes while his APC  rival secured 364 votes. The results of four more LGAs are being awaited as of the time of filing this report.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the November 16 rerun in Kogi west inconclusive, announcing that the number of cancelled votes was higher than the margin between the PDP and APC candidates.

Adeyemi polled a total of 80,118 votes, while Melaye got 59,548 votes, leaving a margin of 20,570 while 43,127 votes were cancelled.

Adeyemi had already polled I’ve 80,000 votes is while his arch rival had over 59,000 votes in the fortnight rerun senatorial election.

In a statement yesterday, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole congratulated Adeyemi over his electoral victory in the Kogi West re-run election held yesterday.

Oshiomhole said the victory has again affirmed the general acceptance of the ruling party.

He said: “I have always believed in the ability of the people of Kogi West to elect leaders who will make them proud in the Senate and not the defeated Senator Melaye who is among the 16  Senators who rebelled against our party.”

“As it stands, the broom has swept away the entire 16 Senators, Dino Melaye being the last, who tried to destabilise our democracy for their personal interest, jettisoning the interest of the electorate.