The National Assembly Tribunal has fixed October 10 to deliver judgement on the legal battle between Senator Smart Adeyemi and Dino Melaiye over the outcome of the March 28 Kogi West National Election.
By Boluwaji Obahopo
The debacle over the true winner of the Kogi West Senatorial election will be settled on October 10 by the Justice Akon Ikpeme-led National Assembly Elections Tribunal sitting in Kogi State. Senator Smart Adeyemi is pitted in a battle with Senator Dino Melaye over the result of the senatorial election.
Though the Tribunal had 22 cases to deal with (all three senate seats, six House of Representatives seats and 13 House of Assemblies seats), the Adeyemi and Melaiye case, however, generated far more interest among political stakeholders in the state. Adeyemi flew the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP while Melaiye was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Highest votes
Adeyemi challenged the declaration of Melaiye as winner on the grounds: that he (Adeyemi) scored the highest votes; that the report of the recounting of votes in 21 disputed polling units be accepted by the tribunal, that Melaiye was not competent to stand for the election on the claim that he did not win the APC primary.
In the alternative, Adeyemi submitted that the election should be re -conducted in the disputed 21 polling units.
The tribunal had initially struck out the case on technical grounds before it was returned for re-trial by the appellant court, which directed that the case be judged on merit, given expeditious hearing and determined before the expiration of the deadline on the case. Adeyemi opened his case by calling on his first witness, Fehinti Dada, who told the court that the March 28, 2015 senatorial election was falsified by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in favour of Melaiye.
Dada under cross examination by the respondent’s counsel, Francis Ani, said the election was fraught with irregularities in 21 units of five wards in Lokoja Local Council of the state. Dada, who was the PDP senatorial collation officer for the election, said the result of the recounting exercise ordered by the tribunal revealed that INEC counted and recorded the voided votes during the election in favour of Melaiye. He also told the tribunal that the APC never held a primary election before Melaiye emerged as the candidate of the party, and some members of the APC went to court to challenge the emergence of Melaiye adding that documentary evidence from INEC backed the claim that Melaiye did not go through primary.
Adeyemi’s teams before then tendered a certified true copy of INEC report on the APC Kogi West Senatorial primaries in which it was adduced that Melaye did not partake in that primary.
While claiming that the documents were admissible by virtue of Section 83 of the Evidence Act, Kayode Olatoke, SAN urged the tribunal to admit them as exhibits to be used in prosecuting the petition.
However, Ani, counsel to Melaiye, objected to the admissibility of the documents, saying that the INEC officials that brought the documents could not give evidence on them. He said since the petitioner had not told the court while applying for the subpoena that he would make the makers give evidence on them outside the box, the tribunal should not allow it.
Also, APC counsel, Ayotunde Ogunleye, noted that the court should be bound by the prayers of parties in a suit, claiming that the arguments and the authorities cited by Olatoke were not relevant to the petition, as the witnesses were not competent to give evidence on the documents and urged the tribunal to reject the documents.
The chairman of the tribunal, Justice Akon Ikpeme, said the tribunal accepted the document based on the rulings of the Appeal and Supreme Courts on such matters as the rule of admissibility did not need calling the makers of the documents to give evidence on such documents, saying Section 183(1) of the Evidence Act made the documents admissible.
But in a dramatic turn, three weeks later, a witness from INEC, Abuja office, Ibrahim Mohammed, stunned the court to say the commission monitored the conduct of Kogi West senatorial primary election of the APC.
Mohammed further said he did not know the INEC official that conducted the primary but was only availed the report of the exercise. He mentioned two locations where the primary was conducted under cross examination.
Legal oral submission
Another witness, Victor Garba working with the Department of State Services, also stunned the court when he could not state the name of the Director General of the organisation. When also asked the name of the Assistant Director of Operations of the DSS in the state, the witness said he did not know it too.
Adeyemi’s counsels in their joint address signed by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and Kayode Olatoke (SAN) submitted by Lateef Fagbemi asked the court to uphold their written address as their legal oral submission.
However, Melaiye and APC, who adopted their written addresses as oral submission, urged the court to dismiss the petitioner’s request. While Melaiye said the petition should be dismissed in his entirety because the petitioners request was a mere academic exercise, waste of court time and grossly incompetent, the APC said the case should be dismissed because it was frivolous.
