An Appeal Court in Abuja, on Friday, upheld the decision of the Election Petitions Tribunal that nullified the election of Senator Dino Melaye.
Melaye was representing Kogi West until the sacking.
A three-member panel of the court, led by Justice Yahaya Dantijo, in a unanimous decision affirmed the judgement of the tribunal who had nullified Melaye’s victory earlier and ordered for re-election.
Justice Dantijo affirmed the tribunal’s verdict, asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return given to Melaye and conduct a fresh election within the time frame of the law.
Melaye’s counsel, Joash Amputan, had on September 5, prayed the appellant court to set aside the tribunal’s judgement because “it is a miscarriage of justice”.
He said the mutilation of result sheet relied upon by the tribunal to nullify his client’s election was wrong.
He also urged the court to disregard the tribunal’s verdict relying on the detected over voting.
He added that the figures were not in concordance with the numbers of voters in the affected wards and local government areas.
Counsel to Senator Smart Adeyemi, Mr Dapo Otitoju, said the mutilation of result sheet was done by INEC in connivance with Dino’s men to cover up the rigging.
He also said 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 added that 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.
He, therefore, prayed the Appeal Court to disregard the petitioners’ counsel prayers and uphold the tribunal’s judgement.
He submitted that the appeal is incompetent and lacking in merit.
On August 23, the Kogi National Assembly election tribunal nullified the election of Melaye.
Melaye, a candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared the winner of the February election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
His victory was challenged in court by Adeyemi, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Adeyemi challenged Melaye’s victory on three grounds of irregularities, over voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
Meanwhile, INEC says it will explore the possibility of using the November 16 governorship election to conduct a fresh election for Kogi West Senatorial district.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Kogi, Nasarawa and Kwara states, Alhaji Mohammed Haruna, dropped the hint in Lokoja on Friday.
Fielding questions from newsmen on the Court of Appeal judgement nullifying the election of Melaye, Haruna said that since the governorship election was still 34 days away, there was possibility for the election to hold same day.
The INEC National Commissioner was in Lokoja for a workshop on fake news organised for media executives, journalists and bloggers by the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) in collaboration with INEC.
Haruna told the participants to be wary of fake news and its implications, saying that unverified news should not be allowed space.
He also enjoined them to support INEC to institute credible electoral process in the country.
On concern in some quarters on the possible manipulation of the card reading machine by unscrupulous politicians, the national commissioner dismissed it as “practically impossible’’.
He also assured that the commission would allow a level-playing ground for all candidates in the election, but appealed to them to play the game according to rules.
The state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Adeiza Jimoh, assured that journalists would be professional in the discharge of their duties before, during and after the election.
He commended IFES and INEC for organising the seminar for his members, saying that “the workshop is timely”.
