Dino Melaye drags Inec to court asking that the recall process initiated against him be stopped

KOGI West's Senator Dino Melaye has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) to court in an attempt to prevent it from proceeding with moves to get him recalled from the National Assembly.

Over recent weeks, Senator Melaye has become the subject of a recall attempt, as his political opponents have been gathering signatures to effect his recall from the senate. So far, it is reported that 188,588 signatures have been gathered but the senator has dismissed the move as a plot by his opponents led by Kogi State governor Yahya Bello.

Earlier this week, Inec confirming that it had been notified about the move. One Inec official revealed that the commission has formally notified Senator Melaye of the demand by the people of his constituency to recall him from the Senate.

Determined to save his seat, however, yesterday, Senator Melaye dragged Inec before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, seeking an order stopping the ongoing process. In an originating summons he filed through his lawyer Chief Mike Ozekhome, the embattled lawmaker asked the court to declare that the petition presented to Inec for his recall was illegal, unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, invalid, null and void and of no effect in law.

He also prayed the court for a declaration that the petition was invalid and of no effect, having being signed by fictitious, dead and none existing persons in his senatorial district. Senator Melaye also asked for an order of injunction restraining Inec from commencing or further continuing or completing the process of his recall.

In addition, Senator Melaye, begged the high court to stop the electoral body from conducting any referendum predicated on the fictitious petition allegedly submitted to it by his purported constituents on the basis of the fundamentally and legally flawed petition. He specifically urged the court to determine whether by provisions of Sections 68 and 69 of the constitution, he is entitled to a fair hearing before the process of his recall can be triggered.