Senator Dino Melaye has secured the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nomination for Kogi governorship election scheduled for November 11, 2023, after defeating his closest challenger, Idoko Ilonah, with 313 votes to Ilonah’s 124.

The chairman, PDP primary Election Committee, Ahmed Makarfi announced the results on Sunday at end of the indirect primary held in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

A former Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi scored 77 votes and the PDP governorship candidate in 2019, Musa Wada had a total of 56 votes.

Dino Melaye will contest the November 11, 2023 poll with a former Auditor General of Local Government in Kogi State, Usman Ododo who is the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Kogi state. It was reported that the incumbent governor of the state, ‘Yahaya Bello’ endorsed ‘Ododo’ last week.

Melaye recently replied Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, who said he ‘Melaye’ did not have what it takes to be governor. Wike said if Melaye won the party’s ticket, he would struggle to defeat other candidates in the race for the governorship election in November.

Reacting to Wike’s claim, Melaye allegedly said that the Rivers state governor made the remarks against him because he had not persuaded Atiku Abubakar to pick him as his running mate in the presidential election.

He said: “Nigerians should not be fooled. That integrity and equity that he (Wike) is always clamouring, he does not possess one percent of it. He will tell you he wants a southern presidency, that is why he is fighting but that is a bogus lie. Wike wanted to be vice-presidential candidate to Atiku.