Dino Loses Appeal as Court Orders Fresh Election in 90 Days
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/10/dino-loses-appeal-as-court-orders-fresh.html
The senator representing Kogi West
Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye,
yesterday suffered a setback as the Court of Appeal dismissed his suit
challenging his sack from the National Assembly. A three man panel of
the appellate court in a judgment delivered, upheld the decision of the
Kogi State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal which nullified
the election of Melaye as Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial
District on account of manifest electoral malpractices.
Melaye had approached the Court of
Appeal to set aside the majority judgment of the tribunal which
nullified his victory in the February 23 senatorial election and ordered
for a fresh election within 90 days.
In the appeal, Melaye claimed that the
tribunal erred in law when it reached a decision based on hearsay to
nullify his election.
He therefore asked the appellate court
to set aside the tribunal’s judgment and upheld his election as Senator
representing Kogi West Senatorial District.
However delivering judgment in the
appeal, the three-man panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal led by
Justice Abubakar Yahaya upheld the decision of the tribunal and ordered
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh
election within 90 days.
In the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Idris, the appellate court held that the election was invalid due to fundamental error by INEC which in the
result sheets fixed February 25 as date the senatorial election was
conducted rather than February 23 the actual date the election held.
Melaye through his lawyer Dr. Onyechi
Ikpeazu (SAN), had urged the Appeal Court to set aside the over-voting
decision of the tribunal because it was based on hearsay instead of
polling units agents’ result.
The counsel drew the attention of the
Justices to the fact that only three witnesses were called, adding that
the evidence of the three witnesses based on hearsay could not justify
the cancellation of the senatorial election.
Ikpeazu further submitted that
mutilation of result sheet was untenable because the final result of
senatorial election was endorsed by agents of the candidates and the
parties, and that the petitioners failed to establish that the alleged
mutilated result substantially affected the final result collation.
Similarly, the other appellants PDP and
INEC had urged the court to set aside the majority judgment on the
grounds that they were denied fair hearing and were not allowed to
evaluate evidence adduced during the hearing.
According to the PDP, the tribunal erred
in law when it based its claim of over voting on the number of
collected permanent voter cards rather than voter register as required
by law.
On its part the electoral body argued
that finding of over-voting by the tribunal was wrong and baseless
because the voter register and result of election in 2015 tallied with
the result in the disputed area.
The electoral body alleged that the
tribunal did not evaluate the exhibits it tendered to prove that there
was no over voting and pleaded that appeal be allowed.
However, Senator Adeyemi and the All
Progressives Congress (APC) in their response pleaded with the appellate
court to dismiss the three petitions because the petitioners were not
denied fair hearing and that the tribunal based its findings on over
voting on the report of INEC which comprehensively contained the number
of collected voter cards unit by unit.
Adeyemi and APC through their counsel,
Adekunle Otitoju, argued that INEC breach an order of the Federal High
Court to the effect that the senatorial election result must be collated
and announced in Kabba, the senatorial district headquarters and not in
Lokoja as done by the electoral body.
They alleged that while their agents
were in Kabba waiting for the collation, the INEC officials and agents
of the appellants allegedly colluded and secretly moved the result
collation to Lokoja where the result sheets were allegedly mutilated to
favour Melaye.
They insisted that mutilation of
results, dated February 25 instead of February 23, was so apparent and
that over voting was so established that the petitioners won with over
48,000 votes.
They therefore urged the Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal and uphold the majority decision of the tribunal.
The tribunal had on August 23
nullified the election of Melaye on grounds of electoral malpractices
and ordered a fresh election within 90 days.
The command said the
duty of such security apparatus is complementary and should not include
mounting of sand bags on the roads to harass motorists and cyclists.
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/10/enugu-police-condemns-extortion-of-motorists-by-vigilante-groups/
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/10/enugu-police-condemns-extortion-of-motorists-by-vigilante-groups/
Enugu State Police
Command has frowned at the indiscriminate mounting of roadblocks by
vigilante groups in some parts of the state.
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/10/enugu-police-condemns-extortion-of-motorists-by-vigilante-groups/
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/10/enugu-police-condemns-extortion-of-motorists-by-vigilante-groups/