Angered by the failure to recall Dino Melaye, who represents Kogi West senatorial district of Kogi State, Governor Yahaya Bello may have concluded plans to sack some of his aides who hail from the senatorial district.
Sources close to Bello said he was not taking the failed attempt to recall Senator Melaye lightly and has threatened to sack the aides or coerce them to return the mobilisation funds given to them to facilitate the botched recall.
This is coming just as the state government continues to deny having anything to do with the recall exercise.
The 555 government appointees from Kabba Local Council who could not get more than 2085 signatures to recall Melaye have been apprehensive of the governor’s next moves.
Also, the seven local government administrators in the senatorial district, who were allegedly ‘heavily mobilised’ for the recall,’ were at the centre of the exercise.
A source disclosed that about N200,000 was earmarked for disbursement to petitioners in each of the 552 polling units where the signatures verification exercise took place with each of the aides mobilised for logistics.
It was learnt that in most cases, the appointees pocketed the mobilisation funds without doing the needful hence some of the petitioners who earlier favoured Melaye’s recall failed to append their signatures.
However, 51 per cent of the signatories were needed at the weekend to continue the recall process to the next level of referendum but only 5.34 per cent was eventually garnered, which made the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to discontinue the recall process.
With Bello’s alleged threat to sack the aides, all the political appointees from the zone have gone underground, while some are said to be secretly visiting spiritual homes to seek help with a view to retaining their jobs.
Director General of media and publicity to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo, debunked allegations that the governor was angry over the development and had asked for refund, which he said would have amounted to admitting that the state government sponsored the recall process.
“It is funny to claim that the state government mobilised people for Melaye’s recall. I am a government official and I did not given a dime for the process so it is blatant falsehood as far as we are concerned,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kogi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Haddy Ametuo, yesterday said the failed attempt to recall Melaye was an act of God since the voice of the people was also the voice of God.
.Guardian.ng