Dino Melaye, a former Senator who represented Kogi West, won the primary election with a total of 313 votes. His closest rival, Awoniyi, came in second with a total of 77 votes.
Former deputy governor of Kogi State, Yomi Awoniyi, has expressed his concerns over the emergence of Dino Melaye as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Kogi State. In the recently conducted primary, Melaye won with 313 votes, while Awoniyi came second with 77 votes. Awoniyi believes that Melaye’s victory is a product of a “tainted delegates list” and that it poses a threat to the unity of the party and the prospect of winning the November 11 governorship election.
According to Awoniyi, Melaye’s votes were a result of a flawed primary where 158 delegates, who emerged from the state ad hoc congress of March 29, 2023, were replaced by Senator Abdul Ningi Congress Committee, who worked with Melaye’s enablers within the party hierarchy at the highest level. Awoniyi argued that a total of 158 votes should not have been gifted to any aspirant in a contest for 739 votes involving eight aspirants. He believes that the primary was fraudulent, duplicitous, sinful, and unwholesome because it conferred an undue advantage on Melaye, who won a fraudulent primary.
Awoniyi anticipates that the dust will not settle even beyond the November 11, 2023, governorship election. Although he does not necessarily blame Melaye, he believes that Melaye needs to search his heart to see if he has behaved well as a counsellor of the celestial, which he claims to be. Awoniyi blames Melaye’s enablers for the situation that they find themselves in today.
Meanwhile, Melaye, in a statement released on Monday, attributed his victory to God.