Court throws out Melaye’s suit challenging Adeyemi’s election

A Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Tuesday threw out the suit filed by the former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye, challenging the tribunal judgment which upheld the election of Senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the 2019 Kogi West Senatorial Election. 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).

Senator Melaye had filed a suit at the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of the Kogi State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed the election of Senator Adeyemi. He asked the court to upturn the decision of the Tribunal that declared Senator Adeyemi as the winner of the election.

A three-man panel of justices of the appellate court, however, dismissed the suit in its judgment delivered on Tuesday in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Justice Ibrahim Saulawa who led the other judges and delivered the judgment held that the appeal filed by Melaye was incompetent. He added that all seven issues raised in the appeal were resolved against the appellant with a cost of N50,000 awarded against him.