Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber, the Senate, on Tuesday described the move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recall Senator Dino Melaye based on a petition submitted to the electoral umpire by his constituents in the Kogi West senatorial district of Kogi State as an exercise in futility that would become a waste of time and resources of the state.
According to the Senate, INEC is aware of relevant sections of the constitution that the cumbersome process of recall must follow. It also noted that the various stages passed so far in the move, as facilitated by the electoral umpire, were not in line with laid down constitutional procedures and guidelines.
Resolutions of the Senate were sequel to a point of order raised against the recall move by Senator Melaye himself.
Meanwhile, the Kogi State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) also on Tuesday approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to stop INEC from activating the process for the recall of Senator Dino Melaye.
Aside APC, other plaintiffs behind the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/601/2017, 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.
INEC had announced that it would kick-start the recall process on July 10, having earlier received petition and signatures collated by Melaye’s constituents. Melaye had in a bid to save his seat equally lodged a suit before the court, contending that the petition presented to INEC for his recall was illegal, unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, invalid, null and void and of no effect in law.
Similarly, in the instant suit, the plaintiffs, through their counsel, Mr. Solomon T. Ologunorisa, SAN, want the court to also declare that the petition presented to INEC Chairman for Melaye to be recalled, is illegal, unlawful, wrongful and of no effect whatsoever. No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit which is yet to be assigned to any judge.
On Tuesday, following embattled Melaye’s plea to his colleagues at the Senate plenary to save him from being recalled, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said efforts to recall the lawmaker was a waste of time.
Signatures for Melaye’s recall were collected at his constituency in an exercise that began on June 10.
Campaigners said 188,588 signatures were submitted to INEC, which was more than 52 per cent of about 260,000 voters in the constituency.
On June 22, the electoral umpire notified Melaye of the recall process, and unveiled a timetable and modalities for the exercise at his Kogi West senatorial district on Monday.
INEC fixed July 10 and August 19, 2017, for verification of signatures on the recall register, having said the outcome would determine whether the commission would proceed to conduct a referendum.
Citing Order 14 of the Senate Rule, Melaye sought the intervention of his colleagues, reiterating his claim that his recall was masterminded by the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello.
Reacting to the motion, Saraki said, “As they say, 10 years is no joke in leadership, the Deputy Senate President has explained the processes. So let the process speak for itself.
“I really don’t know why a lot of efforts are being wasted that should have gone into more important things. Eventually, it must come back here for us to decide whether it is satisfactory or not.”
Contributing earlier, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, compared the process of recall to impeachment and said the National Assembly made it a strict process, to avoid abuse and added that debating the matter at plenary would amount to waste of “precious legislative time.
“What is happening in Kogi, in respect of Melaye, as far as this Constitution is concerned, is an exercise in futility. They are just wasting precious time because the constitution is clear on what should happen.
“It is possible that the Attorney-General of Kogi State has not advised them properly. If he had done that, I am sure they would have applied their time to more meaningful ventures in the state.
The process of recall is the equivalent of impeachment of executive positions.
“To avoid the abuse of impeachment, they made it very strict; provisions and procedures were made on how impeachment can take place. That is why people are not taking that route of removing governors by impeachment.
“In 2010, this parliament amended the Constitution, regarding section 69. It states that the number of those who are supposed to have requested his (Melaye) recall are supposed to line up, somewhere in Kogi, while Melaye and his lawyers and each person would verify their signature.
“When they are done with that, they go back to section 68 which states that the president of the senate receives from the chairman of INEC the recall of the member.
“They would also present evidence, satisfactory to the House. So, they need to come back here and convince each and every one of us that they have done the correct thing. Unless they do that, they cannot even give effect to it. So, why are we wasting our time? Let us move on and allow them to waste their time.”
While moving the motion, Melaye insisted that names of dead people appeared on the recall register sent to INEC.
“The total score of both valid and invalid vote is 118,000, but, my governor and his appointees, in four days, claimed they got a signature of over 188,000. They got INEC database of registered voters and copied the recall register and forged all the signatures.
“As I speak, over 120 dead certificates issued by the national population commission, which affidavits were sworn to by the deceased relations and families, have been deposited.
“This orchestration, injustice, lies, malicious manifestation by my governor must not be entertained in a democracy, not because it is Dino Melaye. It could be anybody,” the embattled senator said.
