Senators bicker over Kogi ballot

Two senators locked horns yesterday over the violence and controversies that the November 16 governorship ballot in Kogi State threw up.

Governor Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC), against permutations based on his first term performance, beat the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties and won the election.

But the issue generated hot debate between APC and PDP senators.

While Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo (PDP, Adamawa North) described the election as shame of the nation based on the widespread violence leading to loss of lives, Senator Yakubu Oceini (APC, Kogi Central) said the victory of APC in Kogi was overwhelming and good.

Senator Abbo, who spoke to The Guardian yesterday in Abuja, challenged the electorate to rise up against the politicians who hired and armed thugs to kill people on the day of election, including killing of innocent women.

He also decried the killing of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ad hoc staff drafted from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to assist in the conduct of the election. 

On the preponderance of rejection of outcome the election, Senator Oceini, who also spoke to The Guardian in his Abuja office said, “Sometimes I pity INEC and the judiciary. In any contest, there must be a winner and there must be a loser. It has been like that since the inception of democracy.

“I have never seen where election is contested and won and the other party will go home and sleep. In my case, the person that came third took me to court and he prayed the court to remove me. The final verdict of the court favoured me and he is still complaining that the court is biased. It has always been like that.”

Oceini canvassed amendment of the electoral act.