Fresh Hearing Against Dino Melaye Ordered By Appeal Court

A petition filed by the Peoples Democractic Party (PDP) candidate in the Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Smart Adeyemi, against the election of Senator Dino Melaye has received the blessings of an Abuja Appeal Court. 

The Kogi state election petition tribunal  had on June 18, 2015, struck out Adeyemi’s petition on the grounds that it was incompetent. Adeyemi had filed a petition challenging the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). INEC had declared Melaye winner of the election after a keenly contested poll.

Not satisfied with the tribunal’s ruling, Adeyemi then proceeded to file an appeal against the decision of the tribunal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Ruling on the appeal on Friday, the Court of Appeal Court panel led by Justice Mohammed Adume, held that the tribunal was hasty, adding that it relied “heavily on technicalities” to determine the petition.

The court also ordered a retrial of the petition on merit in the interest of substantial justice, while it ordered the tribunal to accelerate the hearing of the petition so that the retrial is conducted within the 180 days period from the day of filing as stipulated by law.

According to Punch, the court said, “From the available record, the petitioner was reportedly served with the response of the defendant within 26 minutes that the response was filed at the registry of the tribunal, but for all intent and purposes, it is practically impossible for the petitioner to have been served with the response within 26 minutes more so, when the contact address of the petitioner is outside the tribunal premises in Lokoja.

“It is against natural sequence of human events for a court process to have been served on recipient in just 26 minutes when the recipient is not within the court premises.

“Findings of the tribunal that the service was effected within 26 minutes was not supported with affidavit by the tribunal bailiff. The tribunal was wrong in its hasty conclusion and in striking out the petition on technicality.

“A tribunal has the duty to verify and evaluate evidence before it in order to arrive at a just conclusion. The tribunal was wrong in stopping the train while on its way to justice.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s former minister of police affairs, Humphery Abba, and an ex member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Halima Alfa, and over 8,000 people have defected to the APC in Kogi state.