Ex-Kogi Deputy Gov, Awoniyi, Rejects PDP Guber Primary Election 

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

The former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, has rejected the result of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in Kogi State that was conducted on Sunday.

Awoniyi said yesterday in statement that was made available to the news men in Lokoja that the outcome of the governorship portends great danger to the unity of the party and its prospect of winning the November 11 governorship election.

He noted that Senator Dino Melaye was declared the winner, having secured 313 votes from a tainted delegates’ list on April 16, 2023.

He said: “I secured 77 votes, alongside a hodgepodge of votes secured by six other fellow aspirants. Senator Melaye played a pivotal role in the recently concluded Atiku-Okowa presidential campaign. I was the Kogi State’s director for the aforesaid campaign.

The governorship aspirant stated that without an iota of doubt, ‘I make bold to say that Melaye’s victory is a pyric one. This victory portends great danger to the unity of our party and the prospect of winning the November 11 governorship election.

“The reason for this assertion is simple.” 

The primary that threw up Senator Melaye was flawed. The 158 delegates who emerged from the State Ad-hoc Congress on March 29, 2023 were replaced by the woeful Senator Abdul Ningi’s congress committee that worked in concert with Senator Dino Melaye’s enablers within the party hierarchy at the highest level.

“Let me hastily add this, in the pursuit of justice and correct conduct, it is necessary to state the facts as they are.

“To gift any aspirant, a total of 158 votes in a contest for 739 votes involving eight aspirants is not a fair contest. It is fraudulent, duplicitous, sinful, and unwholesome because it confers undue advantage on the favoured aspirant.  Senator Dino Melaye won a fraudulent primary.

“To throw some light on the corrupted delegates list, let me mention just a few of the grave anomalies therein. Firstly, one of the ‘delegates’ imported into the list was the candidate of APGA in the just concluded House of Assembly’s election. Another illegally imported delegate resides in a ward totally different from where his name emerged.

“The 62 of the 158 delegates imported came from two local governments: Yagba West and Kabba/Bunu, which are undoubtedly my strongholds for the primary elections.

“In Ijumu, Senator Melaye’s local government, 29 of the 46 delegates were switched. I stood to be one of the beneficiaries of the delisted delegates. I made the assertion above, at a meeting held at the instance of the former Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Ahmed Makarfi, a fine upright gentleman with impeccable credentials, who was brought in to chair the primary election. Present at the meeting were the state party chairman, some stakeholders and all the other aspirants. Not one voice controverted my statement.

“If the delegate list, which came from the Ad-hoc delegates congress on March 29, 2023, had been used for the primary of April 16, 2023, we would have had a free, fair and transparent event with probably a completely different outcome.

“Party faithful across the three senator districts would have accepted the outcome of the election, which was very well conducted under the Chairmanship of Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Mr. Laureta Ogwuche as secretary.

“But you cannot put a veneer of integrity on a cesspool of fraud. What we have today in Kogi State is discontent within the PDP rank and file, and some measure of elation within the other political party.

“This pyric victory may look like a fait accompli, but the dust is unlikely to settle even beyond the November 11, 2023, governorship election.

“From the forgoing, it may surprise many that I do not necessarily blame Senator Dino Melaye for where we find ourselves today. He needs to search his heart to see if he has behaved well, as a counselor of the celestial, which he claims to be. But I blame his enablers.

“It is natural for anyone to make the most of any temporary advantage he or she possesses. But it behooves on the custodians of the party to ensure that such advantages are not misused to the detriment of the common good.

“All entreaties made to the NWC of the party for the rectification of these anomalies were simply paid lip service. The PDP at the national level, seem not to have learnt anything. They continue to foist persons, only known to them in Abuja, on the state chapters and expect to win elections.

“This statement is being made to correct the impression being given that the primary was a free and fair process.

“It was not. This has led to the PDP, in Kogi State, fluffing a great opportunity of winning back the state from the ruling party. We wait to see what happens in the days ahead,” Awoniyi alleged.ß