The Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) has concluded plans to file an application for
substituted service after the senator representing Kogi West senatorial
district, Dino Melaye, refused to collect the petition filed against him
by people in his senatorial district who wanted him recalled...
Sources at the Federal High Court said
the baliff who went with INEC staff to serve Melaye through his lawyer,
Mike Ozekhome & Co, were told that the chamber was no longer
representing the senator.
“They told us to go and serve the letter and the documents on the senator personally,” the source said.
Following the refusal of the chambers to accept the documents, the
commission proceeded to the National Assembly to effect service on
Melaye but found his office locked.
The team also went to his house with a
bailiff to serve him but the gate man said he had instructions not to
receive anything from anyone.
Frustrated, the commission instructed
the legal team to file an application for substituted service today
(Friday) at the Federal High Court.
After dismissing Melaye’s application to
stop INEC from proceeding with the petition for his recall, Justice
Nnamdi Dimgba ordered INEC to serve him again with the petition and the
schedule of signatures and the list of petitioners.
He held that the suit was hasty and
premature since Melaye failed to exhaust all internal mechanism provided
by the 1999 Constitution before rushing to court.
The commission, in compliance with the
court order took the documents packed in three bags, popularly called
‘Ghana must go’ bags to Melaye’s lawyer chambers, his office and his
home but was still unable to serve him.
When asked to confirm if the senator was
evading service, a staff of the commission, not authorised to speak on
the issue said: “Yes. We are surprised that the chambers of Ozhekome
which claimed to have filed an appeal against the judgment of the high
court would claim it has ceased to represent the senator. We have no
choice other than to apply to court for substituted service. We are
doing that tomorrow.”
Melaye filed an appeal at the Court of
Appeal, Abuja, to stop INEC from going further with the process of his
recall from the National Assembly.
The Federal High Court had on September
11, 2017, in a judgment delivered by Justice Dimgba gave INEC the
permission to go ahead with the recall.
Justice Dimgba gave the go-ahead after
dismissing Melaye’s suit that sought to to stop his recall by INEC
following a petition it said it received from the people of Kogi West
senatorial district, whom Melaye represents at the upper chamber of the
National Assembly.
However, in a notice of appeal dated
September 13, 2017 and filed same day by his counsel, Ozekhome, the
appellant asked the appellate court for an order of perpetual injunction
restraining the first defendant/respondent or any of its agents from
commencing or further continuing with the process or acting on the
purported petition presented to it by the purported constituents of the
plaintiff.
Melaye, who has expressed
dissatisfaction with the judgment of Justice Dimgba, is asking the Court
of Appeal to set aside the decision of the lower court on grounds that
the court erred in law in taking the decision to allow INEC proceed with
the recall process.
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