The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has ordered for rerun election in twenty one polling units of Ajaokuta Federal Constituency, Kogi State. The court delivered it’s judgement late on Monday.
The court in its ruling cancelled the result of the polling units, an action that puts the Peoples Democratic Party Candidate, Aloysius Okino on the lead with about a thousand votes.
The APC candidate Mohammed Lawal had won at the lower tribunal. Not satisfied with the ruling, Okino filed an appeal against it. In its ruling the court of Appeal ordered annulled Lawal’s victory and ordered rerun in twenty one pilots units within 90 days.
In terms of politics, Kogi State has been in the news for a while. In the first instance, the battle between Senator Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi has been on the front page many times.
After a series of court trials and rulings, some accompanied by theatrics, both now face a rerun for the Kofi West senatorial seat in contention between them. But even when the fight between the duo is not leading media platforms, Melaye has created and enjoyed a lot of drama, being what some would see as an extrovert politician.
He has, on a number of occasions, forayed into music, singing witty songs whenever he needs to fight adversity or celebrate a victory. He is, for instance, the respected coroner of ‘Ajekunya ni o je’ proverbial chant.
Beyond Melaye and Adeyemi, however, Governor Yahaya Bello also has a lot of sensatio around him. He has remained controversial since he emerged on the scene as he is even a product of such, going by the death of the All Progressives Congress’ choice of him, against James Faleke, who was the running mate to Abubakar Audu, who was originally elected but died about the time he was to assume office.
Apart from controversial decisions too, the fight-to-finish between Bello and his former deputy, Simon Achuba, has also attracted a lot o attention to Kogi.
Of course, in a mater of days, the governorship election will hold, thus further spotlighting the state. With the rerun coming up in Ajaokuta, therefore, more and more will still be heard from the historically vital state.
Ajaokuta is a Local Government Area in Kogi State, Nigeria and a town within it on the left bank of the Niger River. The headquarters of the LGA are in the town of Egayin in the south of the area at 6°40′11″N 8°48′19″E, according to a profile.
It has an area of 1,362 km² and a population of 122,321 at the 2006 census.[1] As of 2008 Ajaokuta, the town, had an estimated population of 16,039.
The town is the home of the multibillion-dollar Ajaokuta Steel Mill, the largest steel mill in Nigeria. Begun by the Soviet Union in 1979 under a cooperation agreement with Nigeria, the complex reached 98% completion by 1994.[4] The steelworks have been called the “bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialization”.[5] However, the project has been mismanaged, and the steel mill has not produced a single sheet of steel as of December 2017.[4]
