The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dino Melaye

  • Ajekun Iya rumble

    Dino Melaye is done and dusted — either as first-ever recall scalp, to weed Nigeria’s highest legislative chamber of searing rascality and insensate representation?

    Or, as alleged, a survival strategy by suborning the court process, to subvert the will of the people, and vanquish the spirit, if not the letter, of the law itself?

    Not quite.  Raging out there, in Kogi West senatorial district, is the

    Ajekun Iya rumble.  The streets rock and quake.  It could go either way.

    Did they expect the great Dino Melaye, Ajekun Iya founder, author and finisher; and grand exponent, to quit without  putting up a fight?  Remember, we talk of roforofo fight here, where this all-conquering General has quite a track record.

    On a visit to Kabba, the old provincial capital some two weeks ago, Hardball saw quite a storm-troop of posters, urging the great Dino, the absolute lord of cacophonies, urging himself on.

    Austine Okocha, the world famous ball juggler and enchanting dribbler, so dazed the British press they hailed him in absolute terms: “Jay-Jay is so good,” the Brits enthused in their papers, referring to his even more famous moniker, “they named him twice.”

    Dino?  He’s so loud, din is embedded in his self-given moniker!  All that has come to the fore, in this recall-induced Ajekun Iya rumble!

    “File be. (Leave it as it is)”, the posters, in full roaring colour, decreed.  “No to recall Senator Dino Melaye.  I support Dino Melaye.”  Of course, you do, mate!  If you didn’t, why would you have gone through all this trouble?

    Well, who is the “I”?  Dino Melaye himself, roaringly supporting himself even if no one held did?  Hardly a crime, in the “democratic” equivalent of combat, where you either kill or are killed.

    Does “I” mean the generic singular of the great multitude, of millions, all zestfully rooting for the good senator, against alleged gubernatorial Leviathan, young and rash, sworn to, willy-nilly, elbowing the senator out of the public space?

    Or, the “I”, just some fictive bluff, from some phantom crowd, no more than the din emanating from no one but Dino himself?

    Nobody knows!  But what is sure: Dino and his traducers are the proverbial cock, walking the tightrope — neither the coke nor the taunt rope may just have kissed peace bye-bye.

    Just to return to the bona fides: Hardball avers Dino is a man of the people, far more popular, far more educated and certainly far more sophisticated than Chief Nanga, MP, that sorry Chinua Achebe creation, in the novel, A Man of the People.

    Dino is a class act!  A full-fledged senator of the Federal Republic, House of Representatives emeritus, with flaming anti-corruption credentials, and distinguished graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, with special privileges, from the eternal visitor, to wear the great citadel’s ceremonial garbs to Senate proceedings, committee or plenary.  He is an old boy in whom good, old ABU is well pleased.

    Well, did you murmur he was an eternal student, who spent two thousand seasons, just to earn — no, bag — his first degree?  That’s your cup of tea!  Wait — are you the university historian?

    Anyway, that is the formidable guy they want to unhorse!

    The great Ajekun Iya rumble is on — and what a helluva battle!  Now, who blinks?

  • Court to hear suits on Melaye’s recall Friday

    Court to hear suits on Melaye’s recall Friday

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed Friday for the hearing of two suits seeking to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from proceeding with the process of recalling Senator Dino Melaye from the upper legislative chamber.

    The first suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/567/2017, was filed by Melaye, while the second, marked: FHC/ABJ/601/2017, was filed by the Kogi State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and 12 others.

    The other plaintiffs in the second suit are – Alhaji ‎Haddy Ametuo, Hon. Shaibu Osune, S.T Adejo, Comrade Yahaya Ade Ismail, Chief Gbenga Ashagun, Ahovi S. Ibrahim, Ghali ND Usman, Isa Abubakar, I. Molemodile, Abubakr M. Adamu and Daniel Sekpe.

    The vacation judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, fixed Friday for hearing after granting an application by Olatunji Atoyebi (for the plaintiffs in the second suit) for the consolidation of his client’s case, pending before another judge of the court, with the one by Melaye (which is already slated for hearing during the court’s vacation).

    The judge said the consolidation was necessary to prevent the rendering of conflicting judgments by two judges of the court, since the cases were on  same issue.

    Earlier in the proceeding, the judge granted two applications, admitting new parties to the suit. The first application was filed by three individuals, who said they coordinated the petition for Melaye’s recall – Chief Cornelius Olowo, John Anjorin and Malam Yusuf Adamu.

    They were joined as defendants in the suit by Melaye.

    The second application was filed by five persons – Afolabi Lydia Olufunke, Mrs. Iyabose Owolabi, Sanya Grace Folake, Salihu Abubakar Abdullahi and Micheal Olowolaiyemo, who identified themselves as registered voters from Kogi West.

    They were joined as co-plaintiffs in the suit by Melaye.

     

  • Court grants INEC’s request for prompt hearing of Melaye’s suit

    Court grants INEC’s request for prompt hearing of Melaye’s suit

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday granted the request by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for accelerated hearing of a suit filed by Senator Dino Melaye, challenging the move to recall him from the upper legislative chamber.

    Justice John Tsoho (also of the Federal High Court, Abuja) on July 6 ruled on an ex-parte application filed by Melaye, rejecting his request for interim restraining order, but ordered parties to maintain status quo and adjourned till September 29 for hearing of Melaye’s motion for interlocutory injunction and applications by parties seeking to be joined.

    INEC consequently filed three separate documents on July 14, including a summons for accelerated hearing of Melaye’s suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/567/2017, motion on notice for an order setting aside the order made on June 6 and defendant’s counter-affidavit against plaintiff’s originating summons filed on June 23, 2017.

    INEC said the order made in its absence on July 6, by Justice Tsoho, has served the sole purpose of preventing it from performing its constitutional responsibilities provided Under Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution and the 90 days allocated for the conclusion of a recall process.

    The electoral body said it planned to make public on August 19, its report of the verification of list of voters, who signed the petition against Melaye.

    The vacation judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, on Thursday granted INEC’s application for hearing of the suit and hearing of the case during vacation as against the September 29 earlier chosen by Justice Tsoho.

    Although INEC’s lawyer, Sulaymen Ibrahim, had indicated his intention to object to application by two sets of people seeking to be made parties in the case, he later withdrew his objection when the judge said he was willing to allow any interested party to join the suit and would hear the substantive suit promptly.

    The first application for joinder was filed by one Michael Olowolayemo, who applied to be joined as a co-plaintiff, while the second application was filed by three persons – Chief Olowo Cornelius, John Anjorin and Mallam Yusuf Adamu – who sought to be joined as co-defendants.

    In the course of proceedings, Ibrahim and lawyer to those seeking to be made co-defendants, Chief Anthony Adeniyi, questioned Olowolayemo’s motive.

    They said his application and Melaye’s objection to it were merely designed to delay hearing of the main suit.

     

  • Melaye’s recall: INEC asks court to set aside interim order

    Melaye’s recall: INEC asks court to set aside interim order

    …Seeks prompt hearing of suit by Senator

     

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside its July 6 order directing parties in a suit by Dino Melaye, a Senator from Kogi State, to maintain status quo pending the determination of the plaintiff’s motion on notice.

    INEC has also urged the court to discard Melaye’s motion on notice for interlocutory injunction and proceed to promptly determine the substantive case on the grounds that time was of the essence, as it (INEC) has 90 days under Section 69 of the Constitution, within which to conduct a referendum for Melaye’s recall having received a petition from the Senator’s district to that effect.

    It argued that it does no one any good for the court to waste its precious time considering Melaye’s motion on notice for interlocutory injunction when it could safely proceed to hear and determine Melaye’s main case filed on June 23, 2017.

    INEC’s said these in three separate documents it filed on July 14, which were brought to the court’s attention Thursday.

    The documents include a summons for accelerated hearing of the case marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/567/2017; motion on notice for and order setting aside the order made on June 6 and defendant’s counter-affidavit against plaintiff’s originating summons filed on June 23, 2017.

    INEC said the order made in its absence has served the sole purpose of preventing it from performing its constitutional responsibilities. It said it had planned to make public its report of the verification on August 19.

    It noted, “in a supporting affidavit, that the court, having made the order directing all parties to “maintain the status quo as it stands today 6th July 2017 pending the hearing of the plaintiff’s motion on notice,” the court adjourned to September 29 for hearing.

    INEC accused Melaye of misrepresenting facts and suppressing material facts in allegedly misleading the court to grant the ex-parte order.

    It added: “Since the ex-parte interim order of injunction to maintain status quo was served on the defendant/applicant (INEC) on 10th July 2017, the order has hindered the defendant from further action on the recall process notwithstanding the fact that time is of the essence in carrying out its duties.

    INEC argued that under Section 69 of the Constitution, it has the duty to process the petition against Melaye and conduct a referendum with 90 day, a duty it believed the court cannot stop under any guise.

    “The defendant has 90 days from June 21, 2017 (when it received the petition for Melaye’s recall) to conduct referendum in line with the approved time table and schedule of activities for the recall of the Senator representing Kogi Wets Senatorial District of Kogi State (Melaye) and the period of 90 days will lapse on September 18, 2017.

    “The last day for submission of application by interested observers, last day for submission of names of verification agents for the member sought to be recalled, stakeholders meeting, conduct of verification and declaration of the outcome of verification have been slated to hold on July 31, August 10, 15 and 19.”

    Attacking the competence of Melaye’s suit, INEC noted that it was merely predicated on questions bordering on the propriety or otherwise of the petition for his recall by registered voters in his senatorial district.

    It added: “The plaintiff has no legal right in the matter of the petition to seek for any order of this court to restrain the defendant from performing its duties. The plaintiff will not be prejudiced if the reliefs sought for in the originating summons is refused and dismissed as the balance of convenience is not in favour of the plaintiff.

    Thursday, INEC’s lawyer, Suleiman Ibrahim informed the court about the three documents filed by his client. Lawyer to Melaye, Nkem Okoro confirmed that he has been served with the documents.

    Okoro said the documents were served on him on Tuesday and that he was entitled to seven days under the court’s rules to respond to the three motions.

    Trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba agreed with Okoro and adjourned to July 27 for hearing.

     

  • INEC releases Melaye’s recall timetable

    INEC releases Melaye’s recall timetable

    The details of the timetable are as follows:

    • Notice of Verification(July 10, 2017). To be posted at the constituency (INEC LGA office, Lokoja).
    • Last day for submission of application by interested observers (31st July 2017). INEC headquarters.
    • Last day for submission of names of verification agents for the member sought to be recalled and the petitioners (August 10, 2017). By a letter addressed and submitted to the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) indicating the Polling Unit verification agents arranged by LGAs as well as collation agents and where they will serve.
    • Stakeholders meeting (August 15, 2017). INEC State Office.
    • Conduct of Verification (August 19, 2017). To be held in the Polling Units in the constituency.
  • Dino Melaye’s recall: Court refuses to stop INEC

    Dino Melaye’s recall: Court refuses to stop INEC

    Embattled Senator Dino Melaye failed yesterday in a bid to stop his recall process by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Justice John Tsoho, in an ex-parte ruling yesterday, rejected Melaye’s motion for a temporary injunction restraining INEC from proceeding with the recall process until the determination of his (Melaye’s suit) challenging his recall.

    Instead, the judge ordered parties in the case to “maintain status quo as things stand today, July 6, 2017, pending the hearing of the motion on notice”.

    Mike Ozekhome (SAN) argued Melaye’s ex-parte motion yesterday.

    The judge adjourned to September 29 for hearing on Melaye’s motion on notice and applications filed by three individuals, led by Chief Cornelius Olowo, who applied as parties in the suit.

    The applicants said they were necessary parties and would be affected by the case outcome, hence the need for them to be heard before the court make pronouncement on the case.

    In the main suit with INEC, Melaye, representing Kogi West, faulted the process to recall him, arguing that it was tainted by political malice and initiated by his political enemies.

    He denied any wrongdoing and claimed he was being targeted for standing up for the oppressed in Kogi State and unpaid workers.

    The senator is praying the court to declare the petition submitted to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, as “illegal, unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, invalid, null, void and of no effect whatsoever”.

    He also urged the court to void the recall process on the grounds that it was commenced in breach of his fundamental right to fair hearing.

    The senator urged the court for an order of injunction restraining the defendant from “conducting any referendum predicated on the fictitious petition” allegedly submitted to it by the purported constituents of the plaintiff, on the basis of the fundamentally and legally flawed petition.

  • Melaye’s recall: INEC replies Senate

    Melaye’s recall: INEC replies Senate

    • Says only legitimate court order can stop process

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that only a legitimate court order could stop the recall of Senator Dino Melaye as demanded by his Kogi West constituents.

    Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the Commission Rotimi Oyekanmi told newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday that filing a lawsuit was not enough to stop the process.

    Oyekanmi said the actions of the commission were being guided by the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

    The constituents came with sacks of documents which they said were `the signatures’ of more than half of the voting population of Kogi West Senatorial District, which Melaye represents.

    “They also presented a register of the said signatories and a letter, asking INEC to begin the process of recalling the senator representing that particular district.

    “Subsequently, the Commission, in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by Sections 116 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), on Monday issued a timetable and schedule of activities for the recall of the senator.

    “Only a legitimate court order or an injunction can be considered by the commission,’’ he said.

    On claims by Melaye that some of the signatures submitted to INEC were forged and that names of dead registered voters were also included, Oyekanmi said the process of verification would clear all that.

     

  • Melaye jumps the gun

    It is interesting that Senator Dino Melaye seems to be in a hurry to end the process for his recall in his favour without appreciating that it has just started and it is still unfolding.

    Since there is a lawful process for recalling a senator, it makes sense to allow the process to take its course, meaning it makes no sense to try to end the process before it ends.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in a statement signed by Mallam Mohammed Haruna, a National Commissioner and member, Information and Voter Education Committee,  said the body met and  “considered the petition submitted by some registered voters from Kogi West Senatorial District to kick-start the process of recalling Senator Dino Melaye.”

    The statement further said: “In accordance with the INEC guidelines for the recall of members of the National Assembly, the Commission has formally acknowledged the reciept of the petition to the petitioners’ representatives and has conveyed a letter notifying Senator Melaye of our reciept of the petition. The next step is to verify that the petitioners are registered voters in the Kogi West Senatorial District. INEC will on the 3rd of July, 2017, issue a public notice stating the day (s), time, location and other details for the verification exercise.”

    Two days after, Senator Melaye jumped the gun by alleging that there were forged signatures in the petition against him. But isn’t the scheduled “verification exercise” supposed to determine whether the signatures are real or unreal?  Shouldn’t INEC be allowed to do its work?

    According to a report, Senator Melaye, “speaking through one of his legislative aides, Malam Abubakar Sadiq,” said: “Let me also say authoritatively that here in Lokoja Local Government Council, several others whose names and signatures appeared on the list of the signatories to this failed exercise were identified and known to us as being dead long before now. Such people like late Abdullahi Abubakar, his immediate younger sister late Halima Lawal Abubakar and Ibrahim Adama of Unit Code 021, Adankolo Ring Road in Ward ‘A’, Lokoja Local Government Council.”

    It is predictable that Senator Melaye would want the recall process to fail, but it is surely premature to call it a “failed exercise.”  Whether his forgery claims are correct or incorrect, whether the petitioners are verifiable or unverifiable, there is a time to prove or disprove, and there is a lawful body in charge of verification.

    By jumping the gun, Senator Melaye demonstrated uneasiness and unreasonableness.

  • Recall: Melaye alleges forgery of collected signatures

    Recall: Melaye alleges forgery of collected signatures

    Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial district in the National Assembly says the signatures allegedly collected to influence his recall and forwarded to Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) were forged.

    Addressing newsmen on Sunday in Lokoja, Melaye who said investigations had revealed that even the dead signed the recall across the seven area councils of the senatorial district, described the process as fraudulent.

    Speaking through one of his legislative aides, Malam Abubakar Sadiq, the embattled senator said names and signatures of dead constituents were on the list.

    According to him, the name of a former governorship aspirant of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state, late Chief Rotimi Obadofin precisely from Iya-Gbede axis was on the list.

    “Let me also sound authoritatively that here in Lokoja Local Government Council, several others whose names and signatures appeared on the list of the signatories to this failed exercise were identified and known to us as being dead long before now.

    “Such people like late Abdullahi Abubakar, his immediate younger sister late Halima Lawal Abubakar and Ibrahim Adama of Unit Code 021, Adankolo Ring Road in Ward ‘A’, Lokoja Local Government Council.

    Also one late Salihu Black of Gegu-Beki town, Kogi Local Government Council who until his death was a biology teacher in Government Secondary School, Koton-Karfe, also appended his signature on the recall list.

    “This recall exercise was hatched in Kogi Government House due to the manner in which Senator Dino Melaye consistently challenges and engages the government over non-payment of workers’ salaries and pensioners for over 15 months; and also the constant closure of tertiary institutions ,” he stated.

    Senator Melaye also alleged that they claimed to have gotten over 188,000 signatories of electorates in Kogi West when the total vote cast, both valid and rejected, in the last senatorial election of 2015, was merely 111, 000 for all the candidates that participated.

    In a swift reaction, Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi said Senator Dino Melaye should stop worrying about INEC.

    Bello, who spoke through his chief Press Secretary, Mrs Petra Onyegbule, said facts about the constituents were with INEC which had the responsibility of verifying the signatures.

    “There is nothing for the distinguished senator to be worried about. INEC has set July 3, for the public verification of signatures and the date is around the corner; there is no point burning their energies all over the place”, Onyegbule said

    On the alleged collation signatures in Government House, the spokes person said it was absolutely false as no single signature was collated in Government House. (NAN)

  • Updates on moves to recall Melaye from Senate

    Updates on moves to recall Melaye from Senate

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday received signatures of registered voters in Kogi West Senatorial District, seeking the recall of Senator Dino Melaye from the upper legislative chamber.

    RELATED: ‘Melaye not fit to be Senator’

    At least 188, 588 out of the 360, 098 registered voters in the senatorial district have endorsed Melaye’s recall from the Senate.

    Reports said at least six bags containing the voters’ signatures were submitted to INEC on Wednesday.

    The Nation recalls that the process to recall the Kogi West Senator gathered momentum on Sunday, June 11 with the mobilisation of prospective signatories.

    It was gathered authoritatively that leaders across the seven local governments in the senatorial district met in Lokoja on Friday night to strategise on the ‘Dino Recall Project’.

    Meanwhile, the Senator in his response said that the ongoing move by the electorate in his constituency to recall him from the Senate will fail.

    According to him, his achievements in the Senate were enormous and as such the people of the constituency were solidly behind him.

    Melaye, who later led his supporters on a peaceful march around Kabba town, alleged that the state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, was behind the move to recall him.

    In his counter-response, the Governor urged the Senate to ensure the red chamber is made up of men of high calibre, integrity and good character to retain its high esteem.

    The governor made the statement, referring to Senator Melaye as a misfit for the Senate during his visit to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday, June 15.