Tribunal upholds Senator Melaye’s election
The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State, yesterday upheld the election of Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi West Senatorial District at the upper chamber.
Senator Smart Adeyemi had gone to the tribunal where he challenged the election of Dino Melaye as the senator in the March 28 National Assembly election, saying the election was fraught with irregularities and that Melaye did not participate in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
But the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Akon Ikpeme, in her ruling which lasted about two hours faulted all the five grounds upon which the petitioner (Smart Adeyemi) hinged his case, and thereby dismissed the petition for lack of merit.
She held that the petitioner was unable to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt. Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, has commended the appointment of former President Goodluck Jonathan as Head of the Commonwealth Observer Group to the forth-coming elections in Tanzania.
Dr Mohammed, in a statement issued and signed yesterday by Mr. Emeka Nwankpa, his Special Assistant, Media, described the appointment as a major positive fallout of the satisfaction by the international community that the former PDP-led administration in the country left behind a legacy of credible elections worthy of emulation by other incumbent leaders in the continent.
He said the choice of former President Jonathan to lead the high-powered observer group of the Commonwealth to Tanzania elections is an overwhelming international endorsement of his sterling democratic credentials and also a validation of the true democratic content of the PDP which the former president led in the last elections in the country.
Dr. Bello urged politicians in the country to see former President Jonathan’s appointment as leader of the Commonwealth Observer Group as a wake-up call and a worthy reward for placing personal interest above national interest.
Meanwhile, the PDP BoT Chairman has expressed shock over the death of the first Executive Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief D.S.P Alamieyeseigha, describing it as painful and a big loss to the people of the state and the nation in general.