Recall: Dino evades service of petition, documents, as INEC seeks substituted service

The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, has refused service of a copy of the petition and other accompanying documents that informed the commencement of the process of his recall from the Senate by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja had, last week, dismissed Melaye’s suit and ordered that he (Melaye) be served the documents to enable him to prepare for the stakeholders’ meeting for the commencement of the verification exercise within two weeks from the date of the delivery of the judgment.

The Senator had filed a suit seeking an order of the court stopping INEC from commencing his recall process from the Senate.

But Sunday Tribune gathered at the weekend that attempts to serve Melaye the documents as ordered by the court proved abortive, alleging that the senator was evading service.

Counsel to the electoral body in the suit, Yunus Ustaz Usman, told Sunday Tribune that Dino’s secretary at  the Senate refused to accept the documents from the bailiff of the court on behalf of the senator, saying that there was no instruction to that effect from the senator.

Similarly, it was alleged that a security guard at Dino’s house, who denied the bailliff of the court entrance to the house, also refused to accept the documents which was to be served on Dino last week Thursday.

“Following this development, we have filed a Motion Exparte before the court for an order to serve the senator through substituted means,” the INEC lawyer told Sunday Tribune.

The senior counsel said an affidavit showing the futile attempts by the court bailiff to serve Dino with the petition and other accompanying documents were attached with the Motion Exparte for the consideration of the court.

Dimgba held in his judgment that constituents of Kogi West Senatorial District were under no constitutional obligation to avail Melaye a copy of their recall petition as claimed by the lawmaker.

Meanwhile, the Senator has appealed Justice Dimgba’s judgment  dismissing his suit seeking to stop INEC from commencing his recall process from the Senate.

Melaye, in a notice of appeal filed at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, is asking for the setting aside of the judgment  delivered on September 11, 2017 on eight grounds.

According to the notice of appeal, filed on Friday, the lawmaker said the trial judge erred in law when it held that the petition presented to INEC for his recall was valid, even when the petition exhibited by the electoral body was not signed by more than half of the registered voters in his constituency as required by Section 69 of the constitution.