Melaye asks appeal court to upturn judgement sacking him as senator

Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, has asked the court of appeal to set aside a verdict of the Kogi state election tribunal which sacked him as a member of the national assembly.

On August 23, the tribunal nullified the election and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh poll within 90 days.

The verdict of the tribunal is sequel to a petition filed by Smart Adeyemi, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Dissatisfied with the tribunal, Melaye, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), filed an appeal through Rickey Tarfa, his counsel.

In the appeal dated September 5, Melaye is challenging the tribunal’s judgement on 23 grounds.

Adeyemi, the APC, the PDP and INEC are all respondents in the appeal.

One of the grounds of the appeal is that ”whether the person sued at the tribunal being Dino Melaye, is the same as the person who contested the poll and returned winner of the election as contained on form CF001, which is Melaye Daniel Dino”.

“The provision of the law is that the name as used in Form CF001 is the only valid name that can be used to challenge the election of the appellant,” the appeal read.

“The principle of equity accepted and applied by the majority members of the Tribunal cannot override the provisions of the law in respect of the petition.

“The judgement of the tribunal was perverse and against the weight of evidence before the it.”