Kogi Poll: APC Calls For Arrest, Prosecution Of PDP Candidate For Alleged Cyber Crime

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State has called on security agencies to immediately arrest the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Saturday’s governorship election in the State, Senator Dino Melaye, for alleged cyber crime, which the party claimed he had already confessed to in a live television programme.

The Kogi APC Governorship Campaign Council said, for Melaye, who was defeated at the poll, to have claimed on national TV that he had access to the back-end server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was “like walking into the prison yard and demanding to be locked up.”

The Director, Media and Publicity/Spokesman of the Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo, who spoke at a “Thank You Press Conference” in Lokoja, the state capital, on Tuesday, said security agencies had no tedious job to do “on a suspect who confesses to a crime.”

“Dino Melaye has openly confessed that he hacked into the back-end of the Independent National Electoral Commission. He should be arrested and prosecuted for cyber crime,” Fanwo said.

He lambasted the former lawmaker for saying the INEC Chairman’s children should be ashamed of him, saying this was uncalled for, unethical and immoral.

“Are Dino Melaye’s children proud of his shameless physical combats on the floor of the National Assembly? Are his children proud of the fact that their mother levelled allegations of physical injuries against their father? Are Dino’s children proud of him?

“Dino Melaye was never in the race for the Governorship. The perennial contestant was in it for business and we do not see his allegations as anything more than the ranting of a thoroughly rejected political jobber.

“We can’t beat a child and expect him not to cry. But we will be magnanimous in victory. Someone who claimed to have boycotted an election is here complaining about the conduct. He was not even at his Polling Unit to vote. How he got over 40,000 votes should be probed.

“We call on our members to celebrate with moderation. We are one people and we must remain united as a people. The results of the election has shown that it is our party alone that believes in the unity of our dear state. We won the election and also the battle against those who wanted to drag our state to the dark ages of ethnic division. Kogites, this victory is yours and it will herald fresh air of consolidation and continuity,” it added.

The APC thanked the great people of Kogi State for massively voting for its candidate, Usman Ododo, saying the resounding victory had strengthened the social contract between the APC and the people of Kogi State.

“It has also upscaled the onus of responsibility on us to continue to provide first class schools, health institutions, road infrastructure and many others that the current administration in the state has been doing over the past 7 years and 9 months,” it added.