Tribunal Upholds Melaye’s Election as Kogi West Senator
The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State, yesterday upheld the election of Mr. Dino Melaye, as the senator representing Kogi West on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The tribunal in its ruling, dismissed the petition filed by the former chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Smart Adeyemi, for lacking in merit.
In its judgment, the tribunal dismissed the former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ ( NUJ) case for lacking merit as the petitioner filed his papers very late.
The tribunal explained that the case lacked merit because the plaintiff (Adeyemi) filed his reply and preliminary objection late.
The judge concluded that “the case be dismissed as abandoned.”
Adeyemi had taken Melaye to the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Lokoja, citing alleged irregularities in the conduct of the election as well as the result declared by INEC on March 28, 2015.
Consequently, over 131 legal practitioners including Messers Ricky Terfa (SAN); Femi Falana (SAN) and civil rights activist, Festus Keyamo, offered free legal services to the then Senator-elect for Kogi West senatorial district.
Melaye had then defeated Adeyemi and was subsequently given certificate of return (CoR) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and expressed optimism that he would “beat Adeyemi silly at the tribunal.”
He said: “This is not a season of boasts, I have defeated him and I will also defeat Smart Adeyemi because he is not on ground; even if election is conducted 100 times, I will floor him.
“Over 128 lawyers including two Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) such as Ricky Terfa, Femi Falana and Festus Keyamo have offered to give me free legal services (pro bono).”
In the petition filed by his counsel, Mr. J.O. Olatoke (SAN), in which INEC is the third respondent, Adeyemi had claimed that Melaye was not duly elected or returned by the majority of the lawful votes cast during the election, adding that he (Adeyemi) should be declared the winner.
The petitioner said he scored the majority of lawful votes cast during the election and ought to have been declared the winner.
According to the petitioner, the declaration of Melaye as winner was wrongful and invalid.
“Melaye was declared the winner of the election because of wrong and/or incorrect computation of lawful votes cast and intentional omission of collating results of the polling units won by the petitioners and counting of spoilt ballots in his favour,” Adeyemi stated.