PRESIDENTIAL AIDE ALLEGEDLY FINGERED IN KOGI WEST APC SENATE PRIMARY RESULT MANIPULATION
More revelations have emerged in the dramatic alterations to the results of Kogi West Senatorial primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the alleged forgery of the signature of the returning officer for the exercise, Isah Haruna.
Authentic results
In a brazen attempt to replace the winner of the election, Senator Sunday Karimi with another aspirant, Sam Aro, the signature of the returning officer was allegedly forged in a reproduced document declaring Aro, who did not participate in the process having earlier publicly announced his withdrawal from the race prior to the May 18th election, the winner.
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Forged results
Investigations revealed that Yetunde Adeniji, Senior Special Assistant to the President on School Feeding Programme and Hon Abdullahi Bello, the former Kogi State Chairman of APC have allegedly been identified as the main actors In the Kogi West Senatorial primaries forgery.
Yetunde Adeniji is said to be a close ally of a former governor of Kogi State and has participated in all panels of Kogi State primaries since Yahaya Bello came to power in 2015.
She was also the secretary of the May 18th Senatorial election panel. The suspect was said to have privately collected another return sheet along with Abdullahi Bello, which was used in the manipulation of the results of the primaries.
It was reported that they first approached the panel with fake information that the president had approved the change of result in favour of Sam Aro after a visit to the president in Lagos by Governor Ododo.
However, reports indicated that the president never gave such approval. All signatures in the Manipulated return sheets were forged except that of the secretary Yetunde Adeniji.
In a no-contest manner, Senator Karimi emerged winner of the May 18th primary election, securing the APC ticket for Kogi West Senatorial District.
With pictorial evidence, the result was officially announced by the APC Kogi West Senatorial District Returning Officer, Haruna Isah, who stated that Karimi polled 51,665 votes to defeat four other aspirants.
Isah also submitted the certified results to the Chairman of the APC Kogi State Senatorial Primary Election Committee.
The official figures released initially released are as follows:
Senator Sunday Karimi Steve – 51,665 votes; Samuel Aro – 620 votes; Smart Adeyemi – 571 votes; Alhaji Abubakar Zakari Ola – 414 votes; Elizabeth Adedoyin – 18 votes.
(DEMOCRACY NEWSLINE NEWSPAPER, MAY 24TH 2026)
