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RECALL: Melaye still in trouble as A’Court disappoints him

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RECALL: Melaye still in trouble as A’Court disappoints him

The Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, has failed to free himself from the troubles of losing his seat at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly as the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed his appeal against efforts to recall him.

The senator had approached the appellant court to challenge the validity of the process by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), after members of his constituency voted to recall him from the Senate over alleged bad representation.

But in a unanimous judgment by a three-man panel by the Appeal Court, the appeal was sacked even as the court also dismissed the suit Melaye filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the validity of the recall process.

The court held that contrary to Melaye’s contention, the 90 days provided by the 1999 Constitution for the recall process to be concluded had not run out but had been paused since July 6, 2017, when Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court made an order halting the process.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who was later assigned to continue with the case had in his ruling on September 11, 2017, dismissed Melaye’s suit, but gave a pre-condition for INEC to continue with the recall exercise.

The pre-condition included that INEC should serve the senator with the recall petition and the accompanying documents, including the signatures of the about one-half of the constituents calling for his recall.

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Melaye had appealed against the Federal High Court’s judgment.

However, the Appeal Court in its lead judgment on the matter on Friday, Justice Tunde Awotoye, substantially affirmed the judgment of Justice Dimgba but held that the Federal High Court ought not to have heard the case as the suit did not disclose any cause of action against INEC.

As it stands, the preconditions the Federal High Court in Abuja earlier gave INEC to fulfill before continuing the recall had now been set aside following the ruling of the appellant court.

The ruling had further paved way for the electoral body to continue the recall process which had been stalled since June, 23, due to the senator’s suit.

 

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