Melaye Loses Appeal, Court Orders Fresh Election

• Court orders a fresh election within the time frame of the law.
• Asks INEC to withdraw Melaye’s Certificate of Return.

The lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye will have to recontest another election.

This is as a result of a ruling by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday which quashed his victory at the 2019 general election.

Justice Yahaya Dantijo, who led a three-member panel of the court in a unanimous decision affirmed the judgment of the tribunal who had nullified Melaye’s victory and order for reelection.

Melaye was the declared winner of the poll defeating Sam Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

iDONSABI reports that the controversial lawmaker through his counsel, Joash Amputan had on September 5, asked the appellant court to set aside the tribunal’s judgment saying they were a miscarriage of justice.

According to him, the mutilation of result sheet relied upon by the tribunal to quashed his client election were because of ways of correcting errors.

He also prayed that the court disregard the tribunal’s verdict relying on the detected over voting. He said the figures were not in concordance with the numbers of voters in the affected wards and local government areas.

But counsel to Senator Smart Adeyemi, Mr. Dapo Otitoju argued that the mutilation of result sheet was done by INEC in connivance with Dino’s men to cover up the rigging.

According to him, the 48,200 over voting that was detected in the election was uncovered through INEC certified true copy of PVC distributed in the senatorial axis.

He said the rigging was carried out in so much bad light that the result of the election issued read February 26, 2019 instead of February 23, 2019 when the election was conducted.

Justice Dantijoin who affirmed the ruling of the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return given to Senator Dino Melaye and conduct a fresh election within the time frame of the law.