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Sen Melaye fails to stop recall process in court

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

Senator Dino Melaye may have fallen into troubled waters after efforts to stop his recall proved abortive on Monday as a Federal High Court in Abuja, dismissed his suit challenging the validity of the process.

The Kogi West Senator had challenged the process of his recall from the Senate by his constituents. But Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, in his judgment, ordered that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) go ahead with the recall process.

The Monday judgment has cancelled the earlier ex parte order made by another judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice John Tsoho, on July 6, 2017, directing parties to maintain status quo.

Justice Dimgba, who the case was reassigned to, had in his ruling in the matter ordered that INEC shall only proceed with the recall process, subject to the service of the petition, the full list and signatures of persons in support of the recall.

While he noted that the 90 days period within which the Constitution ordered INEC to conduct a referendum on receiving the recall petition had been paused since June 23, when Melaye commenced the suit, he however ordered that the period would only continue running from Monday.

He ordered INEC to issue an amended recall timetable in which it should give Senator Melaye a minimum of two weeks to allow him prepare his defense against the recall process.

The judge directed that the amended timetable should be served on Melaye.

According to Justice Dimgba there was no provision in section 69 of the constitution requiring the senator’s constituents to afford him fair hearing before sending such petition to INEC as Melaye contended in his suit.

The judge further held that although the constitution did not expressly provide that the INEC must serve the senator the petition and the accompanying documents, it was required in the spirit of fair hearing so that the legislator could be equipped to fight the recall.

Read also: SEN. SANI TO BUHARI: Reach out to Tinubu else he drowns you

He said that Melaye’s suit was “hasty, premature and presumptuous” because INEC had already scheduled the exercise for the verification of the authenticity of the signatures in support of the petition being complained about by Melaye.

“He must first go into the verification exercise and only when he does not get justice that he can come to court,” he ruled as he also dismissed the argument that the number signatures ‎did not meet the threshold stipulated in the constitution.

On the face of the statistical analysis associated with the suit, the judge held that the number of signatures to kick start the recall process in the Kogi West senatorial district was met.

Out of 360,100 ‎registered voters in the district, 188, 588 had signed for Melaye’s recall.

 

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