The Appeal Court in Abuja, Friday, upheld the decision of the Kogi National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal that nullified the election of Senator Dino Melaye.
The tribunal had on August 23, 2019, nullified the election of Melaye’s, who represents Kogi West at the National Assembly on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A three-member panel of the court led by Justice Yahaya Dantijo in a unanimous decision affirmed the judgment of the tribunal, which had ordered for fresh election.
Justice Dantijo affirmed the tribunal’s verdict, asking 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.
Melaye’s counsel, Joash Amputan had on September 5, 2019, prayed the appellant court to set aside the tribunal’s judgment because they were miscarriage of justice.
He said the mutilation of result sheet relied upon by the tribunal to nullify his client election were the ways of correcting errors.
Counsel to Senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), 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 said 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 judgment.
