Kogi's Governor Yahaya Bello looks to sack aides over the botched attempt to recall Dino Melaye

KOGI State's Governor Yahaya Bello is planning to sack several of his political aides following their failure to secure the recall of Senator Dino Melaye who recently triumphed after the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) threw out the attempt.

Governor Bello is believed to have heavily funded the attempt to have the Kogi West senator recalled, managing to gather almost 200,000 signatures. Last week, however, the recall attempt failed after Inec tried to verify the signatures and less than 10% of the names put forward were found to be genuine and authentic.

As a result, the governor has concluded plans to sack some of his aides who hail from Senator Melaye’s senatorial district over the botched recall. In addition, Governor Bello may also coerce them to return the mobilisation funds given to them to facilitate the failed process.

It is believed that the state government  disbursed about N200,000 for distribution to petitioners in each of the 552 polling units where the signatures verification exercise took place. However, some petitioners who earlier favoured Senator Melaye’s recall were said to have failed to append their signatures as the appointees reportedly pocketed the mobilisation funds rather than pass the money on.

Under Inec rules, 51% of the signatories are needed to continue the recall process and take it to the next level, which will be a referendum. However, in Kogi, only 5.34% verification of signatures was gotten, leading to the automatic truncation of the process.

Following Bello’s alleged threat to sack the aides, some of the appointees have been said to be secretly visiting spiritual homes to seek help with a view to retaining their jobs, while others have gone underground. However, Kingsley Fanwo, the governor's spokesperson, dismissed allegations that Governor Bello was angry over the failed recall and had asked for refunds.

He added: “It is funny to claim that the state government mobilised people for Melaye’s recall. I am a government official and I did not get given a dime for the process so it is blatant falsehood as far as we are concerned.”

Inec only verified 18,742 of the 189,870 signatories originally collected. Also, the recall process witnessed a low turnout as only 5.34% of the 351,146 registered voters in the Kogi West senatorial district turned up for the exercise.