The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye has expressed his appreciation to the people of his constituency for rising to his defense by boycotting the verification exercise to recall him from the Senate.

In a statement issued by Mr. Godwin Ayodele, his Special Assistant on Media in Lokoja, the state capital on Sunday, Melaye also thanked his political leaders, elders and traditional rulers in his constituency for rescuing him from his political enemies.

“We thank all democratic partners who have resisted the attempted external political robbery and brazen impunity from raising its most ugly head. We commend the resolve of our people who have, by their popular wish, wisdom and political independence rejected the selfish and satanic recall.

“The verification exercise has come and gone and the people of Kogi West have willingly exercised their franchise by re-validating the election of Senator Dino Melaye,” the statement read.

The lawmaker, who is still on a hospital bed in Abuja urged the proponents of his recall to accept the result in good faith and face the task of providing the elusive democracy dividends to the people.

The 44-year-old Melaye further urged his supporters to remain calm and humble in the face of victory and avoid acts and actions that could lead to the breakdown of law of order.

Figures from the results from verification exercise released in Lokoja by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that 39,285 of the signatories were verified, out of which 18,762 were genuine.

The genuine signatories who however turned up for the verification represented a dismal 5.34 percent of the total signatories to the petition for Melaye’s recall, falling short of the required 51 percent needed for the process to fall through.

Reacting to the development, the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the recall petition maintained that his political future would not be undermined by Melaye’s victory.\

Speaking through a spokesperson, Ms. Petra Onyegbule, Governor Bello said: “The governor is not in any way connected to the exercise. That it is going to affect the governor’s future is a very myopic thinking.”

She suggested that Senator Melaye survived the recall because his supporters based the campaign on ethnicity rather than on substance.