INEC shuns court ruling, goes ahead with Senator's recall process

Justice John Tsoho of a Federal High Court in Abuja had on Friday, July 7, asked INEC to maintain "status quo" pending the hearing of a motion filed by Melaye to seek an interlocutory injunction.

The judge had fixed September 29 for the hearing of the motion.

But on Monday, July 10, INEC posted the notice of verification for Melaye's recall at the Commission's office in Lokoja, Kogi State capital.

According to the notice, verification would hold across all polling units in Melaye's senatorial district, Kogi west, on August 19.

The embattled Senator has accused the State Governor, Yahaya Bello of sponsoring his recall from the upper legislative chamber.

A total of 188,588 registered voters in Kogi west signed the petition for Melaye's recall.

The electoral act stipulates that one-half of the number of registered voters in a constituency is required for the recall of a lawmaker.

ALSO READ: Saraki, Ekweremadu say Melaye's recall is a waste of time

The 188,588 represents more than one-half of the 360,098 registered voters in Kogi west.

This means Melaye could be ejected from the Senate if his legal bid to stop INEC fails.

However, after the verification, the next step is the conduct of a referendum but INEC said the outcome of the verification exercise would determine if that would happen.