Following the botched recall of the senator representing Kogi West senatorial district, Dino Melaye, many political appointees of Governor Yahaya Bello from the district have allegedly gone underground and deserted their offices.
The governor was said to be seriously angry with the appointees over their poor showing in their various polling units during the verification of the signatures for the recall.
It was gathered that heavy mobilization was planned for the exercise and routed through the appointees.
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on Saturday conducted the verification to confirm the signatures of the petitioners that demanded the recall of the senator but only 5.34 per cent of the petitioners came out for verification, making the recall a failure.
It was also gathered that N200,000 was allocated for mobilization for each of the 522 poling units where the verification held but the money was not distributed as expected, following which the recall recorded complete failure across the seven local government areas that make up the senatorial district.
After the release of the result by INEC, many of the Senior Special Assistants, SSAs, Special Assistants, local government administrators, among others, went underground as they were deemed to have failed.
Visits to the offices of some of the appointees showed that they were not in their offices and calls to their mobile phones did not connect and some did not pick their calls.
However, the Special Adviser to the governor on political matters, Pius Kolawole, denied the allegation, saying no money was made available for the recall by government.
He said: “As SA on Politic Matter, if any money would be made available, it would come through my office. Government was not involved in the exercise.”
Kolawole said he had not gone underground as he had been to his office yesterday, adding that people came out for the verification in Ofin ward, Yagba west local government area of the state.
Also, the Director General, Media and Publicity to the governor, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, dismissed allegations that the state government spear-headed the recall against Senator Melaye.
