Recall: INEC officials drop documents in front of Melaye’s office

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dropped some documents at the entrance of the office of Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, on Tuesday.

The electoral officials did not meet with Melaye who was attending a closed session of the upper chamber of the national assembly.

None of the aides of the lawmaker was around throughout the period that the INEC officials were there.

After waiting without the hope of seeing him or his aides, they dropped four ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags before leaving.

A federal high court in Abuja had asked INEC to serve Melaye with the recall notice and also give him copies of the documents signed by his constituents.

Melaye is fighting hard to retain his seat at the national assembly.

On July 3, INEC  issued a timetable for his recall but the lawmaker went to the court to challenge the process.

The electoral body suspended the process after the court ruled in Melaye’s favour.

However, last week, a federal high court in Abuja asked the commission to proceed, making INEC to release a fresh timetable for the recall.

On Monday, Melaye told journalists that accepting any petition from INEC would be unconstitutional as “the window the constitution provides for the service of recall petition had elapsed”.

“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,” he had said.

“The 90 days period as provided for in the constitution for conducting the referendum after our verification, elapsed on September 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.

The lawmaker added that Mike Ozekhome, his counsel, had served INEC a notice to produce the said petition in the course of hearing “but INEC failed to produce the petition in court”.