‘Adeyemi Will Remain My Political Wife’, His Victory Is Temporal – Melaye

A file photo of Senator Dino Melaye.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kogi West senatorial district election, Senator Dino Melaye, has insisted that he won the poll.

He stated this on Sunday, a day after he lost his bid to remain in the Senate to Senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Despite suffering a defeat to his APC rival, Senator Melaye stressed that he would always win Senator Adeyemi whom he described as his political wife.

“I want to assure you that Smart Adeyemi would remain my political wife, I started politics before him,” he said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

Melaye added, “I won the election and the duty of Smart Adeyemi is temporal and evaporative. I want to assure you that those congratulating Smart Adeyemi amount to congratulating an armed robber after a successful operation.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had returned Senator Adeyemi as the winner of the Kogi West senatorial district election after polling the highest number of votes.

In his declaration on Saturday last week in Kogi, the Returning Officer for the election Professor Olajide Lawal announced that Senator Adeyemi scored of 88,373 votes to beat Senator Melaye got 62,133 votes.

Ambassador Rufus Aiyenigba of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came third in the poll with 659 votes and was trailed by John Olabode and Adeyemi Taiwo of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP who) garnered 262 and 119 votes respectively.

But Senator Melaye has rejected the outcome of the election, alleging that he was robbed while his life was in danger.

He insisted that there was no election in the senatorial district and gave assurance that he would soon return to the Senate.

“There was no election, only an attempt to kill me. I will reclaim my mandate because I was voted for,” he claimed.

The PDP candidate added, “I won the election but through the instrumentality of violence and national conspiracy, these have been tampered with. I want to assure Nigerians that it is temporal.”