The PUNCH reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the APC candidate, Usman Ododo, winner of the governorship election in the state.
The PDP governorship candidate who came third in the election, on Thursday at a dinner in Abuja disclosed that their campaign was violence-free.
Explaining why he organised the dinner, Melaye said, “Well, we were there for the week. I just feel there is a reason to thank God, to sit down, and to appreciate every one of you who took a tremendous risk, and who stood by us.
“You see in life. It is not how it ended. For me, it is a process, and many of you did marvelously well. And my consolation is that there was no election. If it was a proper election, where tenents and doctrines of democracy are respected, it will not be the way it is.”
Melaye who lamented that if the people of Kogi West had faith in his candidacy, he wouldn’t have lost said, “If you look at it, we have good spread irrespective of the suppression of our votes across. Even in the Central where they wrote results, we got votes in some places. In some of the results, we saw the mutilations where our votes were being canceled.”
He added, “So if this election did nothing, it proved a point that you were all right about supporting Dino Melaye as the most popular candidate of all the three candidates from the West, and they already have been preaching about the spread and the spread also manifested in the elections.
“So, if there is nothing, that is enough to take home, to say that the West committed a blunder, not the entire West, those verified episodic elders. So that’s enough consolation for most of us who are here.
“And the truth of the matter is, if the two core candidates from the West had listened to the voice of wisdom on time, the kind of agenda that happened in the East would not happen, because they got this illusion that the West is not organised.”
Melaye who disclosed that he was declared the best candidate in all assessments conducted by different groups lamented that some leaders insisted on going the wrong way.
“Everybody has been served breakfast, I want to believe that by the grace of God, we have learnt our lesson from this election,” he added.
He continued, “So, all we need to do is not to get disillusioned, It is not to get disenchanted, It is not to get discouraged. It is for us to hold ourselves together as a political family and say, that what we lost on the streets, we will regain at the roundabout.
“And this election also taught a lot of lessons three lessons. One of the lessons is that the East now know more than ever before, that they cannot become governor alone. You will have to collaborate with another zone to become governor. And I want to believe that it is not over yet, it is not.
“The second lesson is also for those of us from the West. That next time we should listen to words of wisdom from our elders and not from commercialized characters, not from those who because of their individual and selfish interests created problems for us.”
In his remarks, a former Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, also confirmed that an alliance between the East and the West can win the governorship election in the state.
“So, I pray that as we are all here, we should keep that at the back of our mind. Keep it watered, let it be fresh. So we won’t struggle in the next election, he added.
