The court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday dismissed the suit filed by Sen. Dino Melaye challenging the election of Sen. Smart Adeyemi .
Melaye contested in the Kogi West Senatorial District Election in November 2019 poll on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and lost to Senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Senator Melaye had filed a suit at the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgement of the Kogi State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed the election of Senator Adeyemi.
He asked the court to upturn the decision of the Tribunal that declared Senator Adeyemi as the winner of the election.
A three-man panel of justices of the appellate court, however, dismissed the suit in its judgement delivered on Tuesday in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Justice Ibrahim Saulawa who led the other judges and delivered the judgement held that the appeal filed by Melaye was incompetent.
He added that all seven issues raised in the appeal were resolved against the appellant with a cost of N50,000 awarded against him.
The Kogi State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal had dismissed the petition filed by Melaye for lacking in merit in its judgement delivered in Abuja on June 10, 2020.
It held that the witnesses presented by Melaye failed to prove the allegations of over-voting, unlawful votes, and the various electoral infractions listed in the petition.
