The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by Dino Melaye the former senator representing Kogi West challenging the victory of Senator Smart Adeyemi as winner of Kogi West Senatorial District election.
Recall that Senator Dino Melaye contested the November 2019 poll on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and lost to Senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A three-man panel of the court unanimously resolved all seven issues, identified for determination, against the appellant (Melaye).
Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led three-man bench, in its judgment on the appeal, confirmed the June 10, 2020 judgment of the Kogi State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, Abuja, upholding Adeyemi’s election.
He added that all seven issues raised in the appeal were resolved against the appellant with a cost of N50,000 awarded against him.
The Kogi State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal had dismissed the petition filed by Melaye for lacking in merit in its judgement delivered in Abuja on June 10, 2020.
It held that the witnesses presented by Melaye failed to prove the allegations of over-voting, unlawful votes, and the various electoral infractions listed in the petition.
The APC candidate polled 88,373 votes to beat his PDP rival who scored 62,133 votes.
Ambassador Rufus Aiyenigba of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came third in the poll with 659 votes and was trailed by John Olabode and Adeyemi Taiwo of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP who) garnered 262 and 119 votes respectively.
Following his victory at the poll, Adeyemi was inducted into the Senate and replaced Melaye as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation.
