A’Court reserves judgment in Sen. Dino’s appeal
The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Tuesday, reserved its judgment in three separate appeals challenging the decision of the election petition tribunal that voided the election of Senator Dino Melaye of Kogi West Senatorial District.
The three separate appeals were brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Sen. Dino Melaye, with the three of them praying the appellate court to set aside the majority decision of the tribunal which voided the election.
They also prayed the appellate court to restore the victory of Sen. Melaye.
Justice Abubakar Datti Yahaya, who presided over the three appeals, announced that the date for the delivery of judgment would be communicated to parties.
Counsel to PDP, Jubrin Okutepa (SAN) while adopting his final brief of argument, prayed the Appeal Court to set aside the majority decision of the tribunal on the grounds of denial of fair hearing and refusal to evaluate evidence adduced during the hearing.
The party claimed that the tribunal failed to evaluate the testimonies of its witnesses while no reference was made to all the documentary evidence presented to the tribunal before it arrived at the wrong conclusion of over -voting, when in fact, the petitioner did not tender voter register as proof of allegation.
PDP further claimed that the tribunal turned the head of natural justice upside down when it based its decision on over -voting and cancelled the election in certain polling centres using the number of collected permanent voter cards rather than voter register as required by law.
It therefore, urged the three-man panel to invoke Section 16 of the Court of Appeal Act and dismiss the petition of the APC and its candidate for lacking in merit.
In the second appeal filed by INEC, through its lawyer, Kola Olowookere, the Appeal Court was urged to dismiss the allegation of mutilation of election result and the favouring of a particular candidate as alleged by the petitioner, Senator Smart Adeyemi.
In the third appeal filed by Sen. Melaye which was argued by Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), the appellant urged the Appeal Court to set aside the over- voting decision of the tribunal because it was based on hearsay instead of polling units’ agents’ result.
The counsel drew the attention of the panel to the fact that only three witnesses were called, adding that the evidence of the witnesses based on hearsay cannot justify the cancellation of the senatorial election.
Melaye’s counsel further submitted that mutilation of result sheets was untenable because the final result of senatorial election was endorsed by agents of the candidates and the parties, and that the petitioners failed to establish that the alleged mutilated result substantially affected the final result collation.
However, Senator Adeyemi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) pleaded with the appellate court to dismiss the tree petitions. The respondents claimed that the petitioners were not denied fair hearing and that the tribunal based its findings on over -voting on the report of INEC which comprehensively contained the number of collected voter cards unit by unit.
Adeyemi and APC through their counsel, Adekunle Otitoju, argued that INEC breached an order of the federal high court to the effect that the senatorial election result must be collated and announced in Kabba, the senatorial district headquarters and not in Lokoja as done by the electoral body.
They alleged that while their agents were in Kabba waiting for the collation, the INEC officials and agents of the appellants allegedly colluded and secretly moved the result collation to Lokoja where the result sheets were allegedly mutilated to favour Sen. Melaye.
They insisted that mutilation of results, dated February 25 instead of February 23, was so apparent and that over -voting was so established that the petitioners won with over 48, 000 votes.
They therefore, asked the Appeal Court to dismiss the petition and uphold the majority decision of the tribunal.
