Senator frustrates recall process in court, moves to Appeal Court

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to continue its case in the planned recall of Senator Dino Melaye at the Appeal Court.

The electoral commission had petitioned the court to allow it serve the lawmaker representing Kogi West senatorial district the necessary documents pertaining to the recall through a substituted means as he's allegedly been avoiding getting served in person.

Justice Dimgba dismissed the petition after Melaye's counsel, Nkem Okoro, argued that the lawmaker's record of appeal has already been received at the Appeal Court.

The judge ordered that since there's a pending case in a higher court, further action on the case should take place there.

The withdrawal of the case will be considered a minor victory for Senator Melaye who has been avoiding court officials and INEC officials trying to serve him with the recall notice.

The issuance of the notice is in accordance with Justice Dimgba's September 11 directive to the commission to serve him with the relevant documents before the commencement of the process.

This was after the Kogi lawmaker had filed for an injunction against the commission conducting the recall process against him after a total of 188,580 electorates in his constituency petitioned for his withdrawal from the National Assembly.

On Monday, September 25, the lawmaker denied that he had been avoiding getting served the notice because according to the constitution, the recall process is now void.

According to him, the window provided by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) for the service of recall petition had elapsed as it wasn't conducted within 90 days of receipt of the petition.

He said, "It is clear that by the provisions of Section 69(b) of the 1999 Constitution, INEC must act on the petition purportedly presented to it on June 23, 2017 by conducting a referendum within 90 days of receipt of the petition.

"The 90 days period as provided for in the Constitution for conducting the referendum after our verification, elapsed on Sept. 23, 2017.

"The time having elapsed, I cannot under the circumstance, aid and abet INEC to further infringe on the provisions of the Constitution, which I have sworn to defend."

ALSO READ: All you need to know about Dino Melaye's recall

In INEC's original timetable for the verification process of the recall, it was supposed to kick off on July 10 with the notice of verification, and conclude with the declaration of the outcome of verification by August 19.

After the court's dismissal of Melaye's suit which had stalled the process, INEC released an amended timetable with the verification process scheduled to be conducted on October 14.