The election petition case against the three senators from Kogi State came to the last bus-stop last Wednesday. In a common case of failure of the APC Senators to subject themselves to party primaries before election, two of the senators had their elections nullified and their party barred from the rerun, while Senator Dino Melaye escaped.


THE Court of Appeal, Abuja Division was the cynosure of many political stakeholders from Kogi State last Wednesday, December 2, 2015. It was the day the court gave judgment on all the three appeals on the Senate contests in Kogi State.

All three APC senators who were declared winners of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had been dragged to the tribunal on the common ground that the party did not conduct primaries prior to the 2015 general elections as against the grains of the law.

While the case against Senator Dino Melaye, Kogi West was dismissed at the lower tribunal, the duo of Mohammed Ohiare and Abdulrahman Abubakar had suffered defeats at the lower tribunal.

With the prevailing breeze of unease, the December 2 judgments were expected to decide the fate of all three embattled Senators. The election that produced Sen. Abdulrahman (Railway) of Kogi East was finally nullified and another election was ordered by the Appeal Court within 90 days. Remarkably, APC was disqualified from contesting the bye election as its candidate ab initio was improperly nominated. The same judgment was delivered between Sen. Ohiare and Hon. Ogembe of the PDP.

Coming to Kogi West, the tides changed. The breeze around the ocean suddenly turned hot as Melaye was declared to have been the winner of the Kogi West contest, a situation that has puzzled political pundits and judicial record keepers.

The decision of the Court of Appeal to nullify the election of the two other senators elected on the same basis has now raised focus on the judgments.

The Dino escape is, however, not the only one. It is on record that a number of House of Assembly members who won elections on the platform of the APC had their elections nullified by the Election Tribunals in Lokoja. Some of the APC legislators who scaled the Lokoja hurdles are currently facing the heat at the Appellate Tribunal in Abuja over the same issue.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/kogi-senate-seats-uncommon-appeal-judgments/

cc Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Clearly, there is no conspiracy by the APC to run a one party system as alleged by the pained wailers.

Two APC senators weren't only disqualified, APC itself is also disqualified from participating in the by-election. One of those senators, Ohiare, represents Kogi central, which is my senatorial zone.

A victory for democracy...apc fraudulent ways of winning elections must crumble.

Lalastic

Them Saraki' boys have been cut short.

Victory for democracy

DINO!!

FOLYKAZE:
Them Saraki' boys have been cut short.

Victory for democracy

how? PDP will win the two slots and that will be plus to the saraki support base even more solidly than them being apc renegades. The more pdp in NASS, the more Dogara and saraki are protected till election time in 2019 when they will decamp to pdp. Apc is a scam arranged by a gang with buhari as the face. The streets ain't smiling and stoning might soon follow.

tuniski:
how? PDP will win the two slots and that will be plus to the saraki support base even more solidly than them being apc renegades. The more pdp in NASS, the more Dogara and saraki are protected till election time in 2019 when they will decamp to pdp. Apc is a scam arranged by a gang with buhari as the face. The streets ain't smiling and stoning might soon follow.

CCT and Armsgate will do the job