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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the recently held Kogi governorship election, Dino Melaye, has said no responsible person will go to the tribunal over results of an election.
Melaye stated this at a press conference in Abuja, on Wednesday.
He alleged that the judiciary has been compromised, adding that going to tribunal would amount to waste of time.
Melaye said he will not dignify a “captured judiciary by filing a petition over Kogi governorship election where majority of the results were written before the election day by INEC officials under the watch of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who has now earned the unenviable position of the most incompetent person to preside over the election management body in Nigeria.”
He said as things stand in Nigeria, no discerning observer, no matter how charitable, can avoid the conclusion that the judiciary seems to have become a willing and potent tool in the hands of powerful forces that are bent on subverting democracy in the country.
“The common saying that the judiciary is the last hope of aggrieved citizens is now an empty slogan because the judiciary is rapidly turning to the lost hope of the people of Nigeria.
“Why should any reasonable Nigerian go to the tribunal when the judiciary has been captured and members of a political party openly dare the would-be victims of their infernal rigging machine to go to court,” he said.
Melaye also called on all opposition political parties to “forthwith boycott all future elections unless and until the current INEC is dissolved and a new set of non-partisan, Chairman and Commissioners are appointed.”
“Participation by opposition political parties in future pre-written election results under a morally and ethically challenged Prof Mahmood Yakubu Electoral Commission amounts to giving legitimacy and credence to the continued rape of democracy in Nigeria,” he added.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Usman Ododo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Kogi governorship election held on November 11, 2023.
Ododo polled 446,237 votes to defeat Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who came second with 259,052 votes. Melaye came third with 46,362 votes.