The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has fixed the dates for
conducting rerun elections for the Sabuwa State Constituency, Katsina
State and Kogi West Senatorial District.
Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi are expected to slug it out in the rerun on November 16.
According to a communique from INEC, the commission met on Monday to
consider the timetable for the elections.
The electoral body fixed the 30 November 2019 for the conduct of a
Katsina by-election, while the 16 November has been scheduled for the
rerun of the Kogi-West senatorial election.
According to INEC, the Kogi rerun election will take place
simultaneously with the Kogi governorship election fixed for November
16 as that of Bayelsa State.
Adeyemi, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Kogi
West senatorial district election, last August said his party was not
afraid of a rerun.
He said this while commending the judgment of the election petitions
tribunal that sacked the lawmaker representing Kogi West, Senator Dino
Melaye.
Justice Anthony Chijioke-led panel of the Kogi State election
petitions tribunal had ordered a fresh election in the senatorial
district.
In his reaction, Senator Adeyemi noted that as a student of law, he
had always believed that the court is where those who have been
cheated get justice.
He insisted that he would reclaim his mandate in the rerun ordered by
the tribunal, stressing that he has built the image to win the
election over the years.
The two-time senator compared himself to Melaye who contested the
election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said, “We are not afraid to go for a rerun because the people can
assess the two personalities. They know our antecedents, they know our
track records, they know who we are and what we stand for.
However, Melaye, in a comment that generated heated debates online,
considered Adeyemi as his ‘political wife’ that he would beat in the
forthcoming election.
