The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial Zone in the Nigerian Senate, Senator Dino Melaye has reacted to losing his appeal at the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday, as the Court orders for a fresh election.
Senator Dino Melaye who took to his social media page to express his opinion about the judgment of the Appeal Court on Friday, urged his supporters to remain calm and to be law-abiding as he promised they shall always overcome the fresh challenge. He said:
“I just lost my election at the Appeal Court and Fresh election ordered. In all things I give God the Praise. He who started a good thing will definitely complete it. I ask my supporters to be law abiding as we shall always overcome. To God be the Glory”.
A three-member panel of the court of Appeal, led by Justice Yahaya Dantijo had in a unanimous decision affirmed the judgment of the tribunal who had nullified Melaye’s victory and order for reelection.
Melaye through his counsel, Joash Amputan had on September 5, asked the appellant court to set aside the tribunals judgment because they were a miscarriage of justice.
He said the mutilation of result sheet relied upon by the tribunal to quashed his client election was because of ways of correcting errors. He also urged the court to disregard the tribunal’s verdict relying on the detected over voting, 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 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 a 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.
He, therefore, prayed the appeal to disregard the petitioner’s counsel and uphold the tribunal’s judgment, saying the appeal is incompetent and lacking merit. Justice Dantijoin his ruling affirmed the tribunal’s verdict, asked 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.