Dino Melaye Enumerates Lessons from Kogi Governorship Election  

•  Denies collecting N3bn from Atiku, Dangote

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 11 in Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye has enumerated the three basic lessons the elections has taught the state, insisting that there must be collaborations among zones to win governorship election in the state.

He called for unity in the PDP as there were betrayers in the party’s camp.

In a dinner he hosted for members of his campaign organisation in Abuja, Thursday Senator Melaye said the November 11 governorship election has taught the state that Kogi-east is vulnerable and dispensable as it cannot win governorship election alone.

He explained that none of the three senatorial zones of the state can do without complementing each other and that most especially the eastern zone made a mistake by presenting formidable candidates, instead of harmonising their aspirations.

Senator Melaye told his campaign directors that what the PDP needed to do to win election in the state was unify their camps with tenacity of purpose, as well as remaining focused on the goal.

Giving the lessons of the elections, he said, “One of the lessons is that the East now know, more than ever before, that they cannot become governor alone. You will have to collaborate with other zones to become governor, 

“The second lesson is also for those of us from the West. That next time we should listen to words of wisdom from our elders and not from commercialised characters for those who because of their individual and selfish interests created problems for us. Because at the end of the day, what our elders have been saying that this will be worse for us, is eventually what happened.” 

He also decried the antics of betrayers and peddlers of fake news, debunking  the impressions that he collected two billion Naira and a billion Naira from the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Aliko Dangote, respectively for his electioneering campaigns.

Giving details of the elections, Melaye said it was against the political interests of Kogi-west to field many candidates from the zone.

Though, he blamed it on the activities of those he described as ‘mercantile elders’ , who betrayed him.

Continuing, Melaye said, “And we went through these elections, irrespective of the outcome, irrespective of betrayals, and so many things. There’s a reason to thank God and thank every one of you, particularly our leaders and I especially appreciate, General Tunde Ogbeha.

“Throughout the campaign, not once did we have any gunshot at us; not even once, we we’re moving around the states throughout dead nights.

“In fact, we even went to Bassa. We were driving through that very lonely road on unholy hours of the night. We got to Ayingba at about hours like 12 midnight or 1am and with the kind of stories of gunshots we heard about previously, but there were no cases of gunshots at us or the kind of killings like what we were told when the SDP visited any other place in the East. We didn’t experience any of such, we didn’t lose any soul. Thus, we are grateful to God.” 

He explained that the day November 11 was an anti-climax, because there was no election, but there was a process, “but when you got to the proper elections, there was no election alongside following the tenets and doctrines of democracy were not respected. 

Melaye, who called on his campaign directors not to despair, said, ‘’It will not be the way it is. Again, if people have faith in us, it will not be the way it is. Especially those of us from the western flank. There was this very false message that some leaders from the West said I want to create confusion. 

He explained that the election was like a breakfast, saying, “Yet some leaders insisted and said this is what they are going to do. Everybody has been served breakfast, I want to believe that by the grace of God, we have learnt a lesson from this election”.

He continued, “We gave Kogi the type of campaign they have never seen. That’s the truth. We had a sophisticated campaign. We had a policy document that took about three months to put together and we had the message and we went round. And by the grace of God, we cannot also say we lost because there was no election. By the time we do statistics, what we spent in this election has never been spent by PDP in the history of Kogi State, we know, I mean, we know that.

“So, we need not to get disillusioned, it’s not to get disenchanted. It’s not to get discouraged. It’s for us to hold ourselves together as a political family. And say, we’re what we lost on the streets, we will regain at the roundabout. And this election also taught a lot of lessons. 

In his comment, the former governor of the state, Captain Idris Wada, who was the campaign Director General, commended Melaye for giving a perfect analysis of the campaign and election, explaining that if there was an alliance between the West and East senatorial zones, which the PDP ought to have won the election.

He commended Senator Melaye for running a good campaign throughout the electioneering process.