Ex-Kogi Dep Gov Awoniyi: Dino Melaye’s victory great danger to PDP’s unity

When Senator Dino Melaye won the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination for governor of Kogi State on November 11, former deputy governor of Kogi State Abayomi Awoniyi characterized it as a serious threat to the party.

This was revealed in a statement on Monday by Awoniyi, a candidate in the PDP governorship primary election that will be held on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

The former deputy governor claimed that Melaye wasn’t chosen as the party’s nominee because the PDP primary wasn’t free and fair. He also claimed that the election was invalid.

Awoniyi further claimed that 158 of the contest’s 739 votes had already been given to Senator Dino Melaye, hurting the chances of eight other candidates, claiming that the victory of Senator Melaye was a pyrrhic one.

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He also claimed that one of the delegates who cast a ballot during the PDP primary had previously supported the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the recently completed House of Assembly elections.

Another illegally imported delegate, Awoniyi continued, is a resident of and a native of a different ward than the one where his name first surfaced.

The primary that produced Senator Melaye had problems, according to the statement. The pathetic Sen. Abdul Ningi Congress Committee, which collaborated with Senator Dino Melaye’s highest-ranking enablers within the party hierarchy, replaced the 158 delegates who had emerged from the State Ad-hoc Congress of March 29, 2023.

It is not a fair contest when one candidate receives 158 votes overall in a contest with 739 votes and 8 candidates. It gives the favored aspirant an unfair advantage, making it fraudulent, dishonest, sinful, and unwholesome. After a rigged primary, Sen. Dino Melaye won.

Two LGAs, Yagba West and Kabba/Bunu, which are unquestionably my strongholds for the primary elections, are represented by 62 of the 158 delegates imported. A total of 29 of the 46 delegates in Senator Melaye’s LGA, Ijumu, were changed.

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According to Awoniyi, if the delegate list from the Ad-hoc Delegates Congress of March 29, 2023, had been used for the primary on April 16, 2023, the election would have been deemed a free, fair, and transparent process.

Abayomi Awoniyi received 77 votes, according to the reports, while Senator Dino Melaye received 313 votes, making him the winner of the PDP governorship primary election that took place on Sunday.