DINO Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed to challenge the victory of the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Smart Adeyemi, in court as he lost the bid to return to the Senate in the Kogi West senatorial district rerun election held Saturday.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had a week ago declared the election inconclusive as the margin between Mr Adeyemi and Mr Melaye is lower than the number of registered voters of the 53 polling units of the 20 registration areas in the zone where elections were cancelled.
According to the result announced by the Returning Officer, Olajide Lawal, Mr Adeyemi polled a total 88,373 votes while Mr Melaye pulled 62,133 votes.
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However, in a statement issued earlier on Sunday on his Twitter handle, Mr Melaye described the victory as ‘temporal’ and vowed to challenge the result at the tribunal.
“I want to specially thank God almighty that he preserved my life after 5 attempted assassination, combined forces of security agencies, INEC, Federal, State and LG powers. I was fought on land, in the air and spiritually. It was not about the election but my life.
“I will challenge the temporal and evaporative victory of Adeyemi at the Tribunal. Victory attained by violence and fraud is tantamount to defeat, for it is momentary. It is not about Dino Melaye, it is about Nigeria and our electoral system. I stay the course, not over yet.”
and then