The 2019 senatorial election in Kogi West will be a repeat of the 2015 contest as the incumbent, Dino Melaye and his predecessor, Smart Adeyemi, swapped party platforms for the electoral contest, YINKA OLADOYINBO reports
One of the elections that may be interesting and keenly contested in the 2019 general election is that of the Kogi west senatorial district that will pitch two known rivals and political enemies against themselves. A two term senator from the district, Smart Adeyemi, will be locking horns with the incumbent, Dino Melaye, in a repeat of the 2015 contest, which saw Melaye emerging victorious.
A new twist has however been introduced into the contest. Although, the gladiators are the same, the platforms also remain the same but the standard-bearer of each of the platforms has changed. This and many other factors have made the election to be one that many will pay attention to as it involves two Okun brothers from the western flank of the state.
In 2015 Adeyemi was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Melaye on the other hand, represented the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). However, a lot has happened in the political arena of the country which has also taken its toll on political developments in the confluence state.
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To this end, the two contestants have swapped parties and Adeyemi in 2019 will contest on the platform of the APC while Melaye will fly the flag of the main opposition, PDP.
At the end of the 2015 election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the Ayetoro-Gbede in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi state born Melaye as the winner with 41, 120 votes while Adeyemi, who is from Iyara, the headquarters of the same Ijumu local government area closely followed him with 38, 148 votes.
The former national president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) put up a good fight in the court to turn the table around, claiming irregularities in the conduct of the election. However, his case at the Election Petitions Tribunal was dismissed with the petition suffering the same fate at the Court of Appeal where it terminated.
Adeyemi went on to accuse the chairman of the tribunal, of some “irregularities”. His claim was backed up with an alleged telephone conversation between the judge and Melaye. The allegations were reported to the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the body is yet to come up with its findings.
However, as the controversies raged, Adeyemi, who had a running battle with some leaders of the PDP in the senatorial district in the build-up to the 2015 election, eventually dumped the party and teamed up with the Governor Yahaya Bello’s faction of the APC. As of the time he joined the APC, the party was polarised with Melaye and other leaders on one hand and Bello and his loyalists on another hand. The coming of Adeyemi further popularised the party and Bello in the western senatorial district, which had been aggrieved over the manner the governorship was “taken” away from them following the death of Prince Abubakar Audu.
Adeyemi at his declaration for the APC had said, “Kogi West has nothing to show towards improving the standard of living of our people by successive Kogi PDP governors. This neglect and poor performance of the PDP resulted into anti-party reactions, culminating in the victory of the APC in Kogi State governorship election last year.
“The situation in Kogi West, apart from the state capital, Lokoja, is very saddening to the extent that if those who died in the last 40 years have the opportunity to resurrect, they will easily locate their houses and farms because nothing has actually changed.”
Although, political analysts were clear on the next political move of the former chairman of Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) then, holding that he wanted to return to the red chamber of the National Assembly, Adeyemi always said his decision to join APC was not to contest election. However, unfolding events pointed to the fact that he desired a return to political limelight through the Kogi west seat in the Senate.
The state government immediately made him the chairman of the elders committee of the APC from the western senatorial district. Apart from this, it was an open secret in the state that Adeyemi was the anointed candidate of the party, even when primaries had not been held.
On the other hand, Melaye, who was elected on the platform of the APC in 2015, did not have a lasting romance with the party at both the national and the state levels before things fell apart. Melaye’s initial affinity with Bello notwithstanding, the two later fell out leading to allegations and counter allegations. At the national level, the crises that engulfed the ruling party led to the formation of the reformed APC with members mainly from the aggrieved PDP that detected to the APC towards the 2015 elections.
The climax of the crises was the defection of the rAPC members to PDP and being a staunch member of the group, Melaye also dumped the ruling party for the main opposition.
But the emergence of Adeyemi and Melaye as the standard-bearers of their parties was not without resistance and crises as stakeholders in the two parties and the entire senatorial district felt they wanted to once again deprive the Yagba federal constituency the chance of producing a senator since 1999.
The primary election conducted by the APC saw aspirants from Yagba federal constituency, including a retired director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Toyin Akanle and Mrs Ibikunle Adedoyin, Tajudeen Bisimilahi, crying foul that the exercise fell short of acceptable standards and laid down regulations of the party. Akanle angrily left the venue of the primary in Kabba when it became obvious that he would not win the primary. Akanle later petitioned the appeal committee set up by the party, complaining of irregularities but his petition was thrown out and Adeyemi’s name was forwarded to INEC as the party’s candidate.
The emergence of Melaye from conception was full of antagonism as he was seen as trying to reap where he did not sow, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the rAPC was to the effect that incumbent national assembly members from the group would be given automatic tickets by the PDP and this made him a beneficiary.
But before the coming of Melaye, many aspirants had signified their intention to contest the seat. The first salvo against Melaye’s candidacy was fired by the elders of the party in the district. They accused him of attempting to disrupt the peaceful arrangement already in place in the party.
The Kogi West Elders’ Forum (KWEF) in its reaction to the plan had said, “the news of an attempt to impose the controversial Senator Dino Melaye on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi West by the national leadership of the party as automatic senatorial candidate for the 2019 National Assembly election is hereby rejected in its totality and is unacceptable.”
Pressure was said to have been mounted on him by his followers to dump the PDP and pick the ticket of another party to enable him contest and make Yagba federal constituency achieve its aim of presenting a senator from the area. However, after much persuasion, Karimi agreed with the leadership of the party on Melaye’s candidacy.
Following the lifting of the ban on campaigns by the INEC, the battleground is now the seven local government areas that make up the senatorial district and the major contestants are expected to traverse the entire area to sell their programmes to the people. Having represented the area for eight years before, Adeyemi is expected to highlight his achievements as a senator. In the same vein, Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives and a senator in the last three and half years will convince the people to see him as the best candidate for the job based on how he has been able to impact on the lives of the people of the area.
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