As the battle for the recall of the representative of Kogi-West senatorial district, Senator Dino Melaye, rages, prominent Okun indigenes have thrown their weight behind the embattled senator.
A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN); a former Minister of Health, Prof Eyitayo Lambo; and a former Minister of Police Affairs, Maj.-Gen. David Jemibewon (retd.), have declared their support for Melaye.
A statement issued by the Okun Development Initiative, on Monday, in Lokoja, said it had become imperative for the group to come out with a position on the ongoing recall process after the Independent National Electoral Commission acknowledged receiving more than the required numbers of signatures for the exercise.
The statement signed by the group’s chairman, Lambo, said the purported recall had, once again, brought the dilemma of Okun to the fore.
It said, “The Okun Development Initiative, a prominent socio-cultural association from the western part of Kogi State, declares that the signatures being bandied about as those of the constituents of Senator Dino Melaye, seeking to recall him, are actually not from Kogi-West, the district Melaye represents in the Senate.
“The prerogative of any constituent to exercise his or her constitutionally guaranteed right to recall is inalienable but it is obvious the initiators and instigators of the current attempt against Senator Dino Melaye are not from Kogi-West but lackeys and cronies of constituted authority, an apparent outcome of misguided advice to those insistent on dividing and decimating Okun land politically for egoistic purposes.”