Senator Dino Melaye, representing the Kogi West Senatorial District, lost at the Court of Appeal yesterday as the court upheld the appeal filed by Senator Smart Adeyemi against the decision of the Kogi State Legislative Election Tribunal.
The tribunal led by Justice Akpan Ikpeme had on June 18 this year, dismissed Adeyemi’s petition on technical ground, holding that the petition was incompetent and abandoned on the ground that the petitioner was out of time in its response to the reply by one of the respondents.
In a unanimous judgment yesterday, Justice Justice Mohammed Adume, who read the decision of the three-man bench, disagreed with tribunal that the petition was not filed within the 21 days frame allowed by law.
The court rejected the tribunal’s view that the response of the petitioner to the reply of the defendant (Melaye) was filed seven days after being served with the reply as against the five days allowed by law.
The appellate court rejected arguments by Melaye and held that there was no affidavit evidence from the bailiff of the tribunal that the reply of Melaye to the petition was served on the petitioner on May 13 as held against the petitioner by the tribunal.
“From the available record, the petitioner was reportedly served with the response of the defendant within 26 minutes the response was filed at the registry of the tribunal, but, for all intents and purposes, it is practically impossible for the petitioner to have been served with the response within 26 minutes, more so when the contact address of the petitioner is outside the tribunal premises in Lokoja.
“It is against natural sequence of human events for a court process to have been served on recipient in just 26 minutes when the recipient is not within the court premises,” Justice Adume said.
The court observed that deposition by one Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed on the services of the tribunal process on the petitioner was inconsistent and not logical and should not have been believed by the tribunal.
“Findings of the tribunal that the service was effected within 26 minutes was not supported with affidavit by the tribunal’s bailiff. The tribunal was wrong in its hasty conclusion and in striking out the petition on technicality.
“A tribunal has the duty to verify and evaluate evidence before it in order to arrive at a just conclusion. The tribunal was wrong in stopping the train while on its way to justice”, Justice Adume said.
The court consequently ordered the tribunal to re-hear the petition promptly in line with the provision of the Constitution which stipulates 180 days from the date of filing.
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