Senator Dino Melaye, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Kogi State’s November 11 governorship election, rallied his supporters, urging them to remain steadfast and hopeful. He assured them that despite setbacks, the fight is far from over.
Speaking at a gratitude dinner in Abuja attended by PDP leaders, his campaign team, and supporters, Melaye expressed his belief that a fair election in Kogi would have yielded different results.
He criticized governorship candidates from Kogi West (his zone) for their refusal to step down, attributing this decision to the lack of support from across senatorial districts. He believed that had these candidates heeded elders’ advice and taken necessary actions, even Kogi East residents would have backed his candidacy.
Melaye appealed for unity among the people of the state across the three Senatorial districts, emphasizing that the recent election revealed the necessity for collective support beyond Kogi East alone to determine the governorship.
He said: “If there were to be proper elections, the tenants and doctrines of democracy respected, it will not be the way it is. If there is nothing to take home from this election, it is enough to say that the West committed a blunder, not the entire west, those episodic elders. So that’s a enough consideration for most of us who are here.
“The truth of the matter is, if the two other candidates from the west had listened to the voice of wisdom on time, if Leke and Braimoh had stepped down on time, the kind of agenda that happened in the East will not happen, because the East also got disenchanted, got disillusioned that the West is not organized.
“So all we need to do is not to get disillusioned, It’s not to get disenchanted, It’s not to get discouraged. It’s for us to hold ourselves together as a political family. And say, what we’re what we what we lost on the streets, we will regain at the roundabout.
“This election also taught a lot of lessons 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 zones to become governor,” he said.
Among those present at the dinner were former Governor of the State, Captain Idris Wada, Prince Shola Akomode, Senator Biodun Olujimi, among many others.
