How Dino Melaye hindered service of recall notice

By Hafsat Abdullahi

The senator representing kogi-west, Dino Melaye has absconded from the National Assembly complex to avoid receiving the recall documents brought to him yesterday by officials of Independent Electoral commission (INEC).
All efforts made by (INEC) officials to serve the senator the recall notice at his office yielded no result.
Hence, the commission had gone back to court to secure an order to permit it to serve the petition documents through another means as he had severally avoided receiving the recall petition documents from his constituents.
Reacting to the situation, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday ordered the parties involved in the recall of Melaye to proceed with the matter for further action on the case to court of Appeal.
This was following an argument presented by Melaye’s lawyer, Nkem Okoro, who told the court that his client’s record of appeal at the Appeal court was received and a valid appeal was pending at the higher court.
Consequently, the judge, Nnamdi Dimgba, ordered parties to proceed to the higher court for further action on the case.
Dimgba questioned the validity of a motion brought by INEC, and said such application could only be brought consequent to a matter pending before the lower court.
Following Dimgba’s comment on INEC’s request, the commission’s lawyer withdrew his motion, hence, Dimgba struck out INEC’s appeal.