It was not too good for the incumbent senator representing Kogi West senatorial district Smart Adeyemi as he lost his bid to return to the Red Chamber during Saturday’s National Assembly election in the district.
There are three federal constituencies in the Kogi West Senatorial district namely, Lokoja/Koto, Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu and Yagba federal constituencies.
Five contestants contested the Kogi West senatorial seat including Dino Melaye of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Senator Smart Adeyemi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Samuel Aro of the Accord Party (AP); Toyin Akanle of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Bidemi Adeyemi of Labour Party (LP).
At the end of the contest, Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives, emerged winner due to what many political analysts described as the Buhari Tsunami that swept the entire state.
It is believed that the issues that determined the outcome of the election in the district were basically the zoning arrangement, accessibility of candidates to the people and the Buhari factor.
The issues of rotation worked against Senator Adeyemi as the people of the district, especially those from Yagba and Lokoja/Koto Federal Constituency, wanted the zoning arrangement to be upheld. They therefore voted against him.
As a result of the zoning arrangement, some PDP stakeholders in his Okun area and the Lokoja/Koto axis worked for the victory of the opposition party to ensure that the eight years limit for the senatorial seat for any candidate was not jettisoned.
The rotation issue and the Buhari factor played key roles in his defeat because he was defeated in Lokoja, Kotonkarfe, Mopamoro, Yagba West and Yagba east local government areas.
But the votes that set him packing from the upper legislative chamber came mainly from Lokoja and Kotonkarfe. The electorate there voted massively for Melaye.
Also, the Okun axis, it was gathered, saw him as not being accessible, coupled with the belief by many in the area that all his investments are based in Kwara State and as such he should not be allowed to go back.
Though Senator Adeyemi is always very smart during election and survived the zoning onslaught against him during the 2011 elections and went ahead to pick the PDP ticket for this year’s election at the party’s primaries in December, he could not survive the onslaught at the Saturday polls.
Senator Adeyemi, some say, did his best while representing the district, but the people believed his best was not good enough for them. Thus, Senator Adeyemi, a former Nigeria Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) president, lost the election to Melaye in the district.
Results of the election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed that Melaye polled 41,120 votes to defeat Senator Adeyemi who scored 38,149 votes, while Aro got 26, 198 votes to emerge third.
