Breaking: Recall Dino Melaye, Court of Appeal Orders INEC

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately commence the process of recalling Senator Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi West.

The Court struck out Dino Melaye’s appeal for lacking in merit in a joint decision delivered by Justice T.O. Awotoye.

The court also dismissed the appellant’s claim that he was denied fair hearing by the electoral umpire before commencing the recall process, noting that INEC is neither a tribunal nor a court of law.
Justice Atowoye further held that there is no limitation to the counting of the 90 days for the recall process, as it can be extended, adding that INEC’s powers is statutory and not even the court can take away the powers of INEC to conduct a referendum.
“The powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission is a statutory one given by the constitution and not even the court can take away the powers of INEC to conduct a referendum.
“Such statutory bodies like the INEC should be allowed to exercise their statutory powers without interference by the court.
“The appellant cannot claim that his right of fair hearing was infringed upon. His right to fair hearing has not been violated since INEC as a statutory body is not a tribunal neither is it a court of law.
“The appellant has not disclose any case of action and the suit ought to have been struck out by the trial court for not disclosing any cause of action.
“I agree with the decision of the trial court. Ordinary, it ought to have struck out the suit for non disclosure of cause of action. This is because where there is no cause of action, the court has no jurisdiction to hear the suit.
“Having resolved all the issues in the appeal against the appellant, I hereby struck out the suit and dismiss the appeal”, Justice Awotoye held.

Recall that a Federal High Court, Abuja, had on September 11, 2017 dismissed a suit filed by Melaye seeking to stop INEC from initiating his recall from the National Assembly. The judgement delivered by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba held that Melaye’s complaints were ‘hasty, premature and presumptuous” and therefore ordered the INEC to go ahead with its planned verification exercise.

Justice Dimgba had permitted INEC to proceed with the exercise of verifying the signatures of the 188,588 registered voters, who were said to have signed in support of the recall process. The 188,588 voters were said to have constituted 52.3 per cent of the 360,098 total registered voters in the Kogi West Senatorial District.


INEC is now expected to announce the date of the recall verification.