Melaye trails Adeyemi as INEC declares Kogi West senatorial election inconclusive

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Saturday’s Kogi West senatorial rerun election inconclusive.

This comes as the margin of win was less than the total cancelled votes

Returning Officer of INEC for the election, Prof Olayide Lawal said the candidate of the APC, Smart Adeyemi polled 80,118 votes while Dino Melaye of the PDP got 59,548.

He noted that votes were cancelled across 53 polling units in the senatorial district with 46,127 registered voters due to violence and snatching of ballot boxes.

According to him, the margin of win between Adeyemi and Dino was less than the number of cancelled votes, hence, no declaration could be made until a supplementary election is held in the affected polling units.

Lawal said that a date for supplementary election would be announced by the electoral umpire in due course. Meanwhile, Adeyemi is leading with 20,570 votes according to the results declared so far by INEC.

Both the Kogi West senatorial rerun and the governorship election in the state had witnessed violence, including snatching of ballot boxes and killings.