27/06/2017
Fresh confusion after 188,588 constituents signed for Dino’s recall
By Itodo Daniel Sule, Lokoja |
Blame game, denials and doubts have already set in in the recall process of Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West). Contrary to claims by those handling the process that everyone in the senatorial district is in support of the move, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is not part of the contest while other people within the APC family say the number of those who appended their signatures is grossly overblown. Our correspondent looks at the issue.
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Fresh confusion after 188,588 constituents signed for Dino’s recall
The move by the people of Kogi West Senatorial District to recall Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) from the Senate recently reached a crescendo with the reported collection of 188,588 signatures, representing about 52.1 per cent of registered voters in the senatorial district.
The recall process of Senator Dino has no doubt elicited a lot of interests from political watchers; especially given the fact that no lawmaker has ever been successfully recalled either from the National Assembly or Houses of Assembly since the inception of democracy in 1999.
Observers of the unfolding political drama are watching keenly to see if the people of Kogi West Senatorial District would indeed break the record of being the first to recall a senator from the National Assembly.
Daily Trust reports that the recall process of Senator Melaye began over two weeks ago across the seven local government areas that make up his senatorial district amidst allegations of involvement of some external forces in the recall saga, including the state government.
The seven local government areas reportedly involved in the recall project are Lokoja, Yagba West, Yagba East, Ijumu, Kabba/Bunu, Mopa-Muro and Kogi.
The Returning Officer for the recall process, Malam Ademu Yusuf, had on Monday, June 19, while announcing the result from the seven local government areas, said the collation was done nearly ‘10 days ago in Kabba’, the headquarters of the senatorial district.
Malam Yusuf noted that of 360,098 total registered voters in all the seven local government areas, 188,588 had signed for the recall of Senator Melaye.
“Constitutionally, the requirement for the recall is 50.1 per cent of the registered voters and we already have 52.1 per cent,” he said.
A chieftain of the APC from Kogi West, Pius Kolawole, while addressing the people from the zone at the APC secretariat in Lokoja, said the recall exercise was not about the APC family only.
He said the move had the backing of the electorate from all political parties that registered and voted during the 2015 election in Kogi West.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Kogi West Senatorial District has dissociated itself from having anything to do with the entire exercise, saying the recall process was not having the backing of the party as claimed.
Kogi West PDP Chairman, Barr. Kola Ojo, in a statement, said: "PDP as a party, especially the Kogi West Senatorial District chapter; is not and cannot be part of the recall project.
"Our party has a well organised structure where decisions or resolutions are taken or passed on issues such as this. No such resolution was at anytime passed.
"Our great party should not be railroaded into APC's ill-motivated, self-serving and self-destruct recall project or process.
"Happily, the two PDP senators from Kogi East and Central senatorial districts are performing well and are not being recalled. APC should, therefore, not drag us into their confusion."
Leaders of the movement for the recall of Dino had on Tuesday, June 20, moved to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja to submit their petition.
The group, under the aegis of ‘Concerned Indigenes of Kogi West’, presented six bags of documents containing the signatures of the electorate from the seven council areas in the senatorial district.
Chief Cornelius Olowo, the spokesperson for the group, told journalists that the move to recall Dino was based on his poor performance since his election to the Senate in 2015.
However, those from Senator Dino Melaye's camp have since faulted the exercise, especially the number of signatures reportedly generated from across the seven local government areas which they claimed included names of people that died long ago.
According to them, in the 2015 senatorial elections, Dino Melaye was announced winner with 41,120 votes, while Smart Adeyemi of the PDP had 38,148 votes.
They said that the Election Petitions Tribunal ordered a recount based on a challenge from Adeyemi and that the recount showed that more than 2000 invalid votes were counted for Dino.
"Despite that, his victory was upheld by the tribunal which said removal of the invalid votes did not substantially alter the final results.
"Today, we are told that they have already harvested more than 188,000 signatures to recall him. The figure is said to represent 52 per cent of voters in his senatorial district.
"Between Dino and Smart, we had 79,268 votes. The other parties had votes in couple of hundreds. There are doubts if all votes cast in the 2015 senatorial election in the district will hit 188,000, which is just 52 per cent," the group said.
A check by our correspondent at the INEC headquarters in Lokoja indicated that the total number of registered voters in Kogi West Senatorial District prior to the senatorial election in 2015 was 337,572.
However, after the senatorial election, there was a Continuous Voters' Registration exercise conducted prior to the November 21, 2015 gubernatorial election in the state which increased the number of registered voters in the senatorial district from 337, 572 to 360, 098.
Those in the recall movement are said to have premised their recall process on the figures of registered voters obtained prior the 2015 governorship election in the state.
The provision for the recall of a Senator or Member of the House of Representatives is contained in Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended) while process for the recall is contained in ‘INEC Guidelines for the Recall of a Member of the National Assembly or State House of Assembly’ as found in Section 4 of the INEC Act 1998.
Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution says: "A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives may be recalled as such a member if:
(a) There is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission a petition in that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member's constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member; and
In the same vein, the INEC Guidelines provides that on receipt of a petition for the recall of a national state legislator the commission shall act within 90 days.
Within this period the commission is expected to cross-check that the signatories appear on the authenticated Voters' Register; and if satisfied, conduct a referendum.
Also, the guidelines provide that the commission shall, if satisfied that more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency endorsed the petition, issue a public notice stating the days, time and location of referendum to be carried out at the same time throughout the constituency and at such centres as may be designated by the commission.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had conveyed a letter to Senator Dino Melaye notifying him of receipt of a petition from his constituents seeking his recall.
INEC National Commissioner, Malam Mohammed Haruna, told newsmen in Abuja that the management of INEC considered the petition submitted by some registered voters from Kogi West Senatorial District to start the process of recalling Senator Melaye.
But given the cumbersome processes involved in recalling a senator as contained in INEC's guidelines vis-a-vis the political intrigues and power play, legal experts and pundits are of the view that the exercise would not be a tea party to sail through.
A lawyer, Barrister Joel Usman, said a senator or any member of the national or state assembly could be recalled by constituents given the provisions of the Constitution, but that the cumbersome processes and requirements often made such exercise a futility in most of the cases.
"A recall is like an election. Before you say you are representing a constituency or senatorial district in the National Assembly, you would have to be first elected to represent the people. After electing you as a senator, which is a vote of confidence, if the representative fails to represent the people well, the people have the right to recall such a senator back and reelect someone else.
"However, with particular reference to Senator Dino Melaye, the first question we need to ask ourselves is whether it is those who elected Dino to represent them at the Senate that are asking him to come back because they have lost confidence in him,” he said.
"This question comes up because I have watched on the television a situation where some of the people he is representing passed vote of confidence on him and the party that sponsored him has also passed a vote of confidence on him. So, is it the people that are really seeking for his recall or there are some external forces?" he said.
Political pundits are also of the views that given the cordial relationship that exists between the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Dino Melaye, there would be a strong opposition to the move to recall Dino.
Dino has been a strong ally and loyal supporter of Saraki, especially during his ordeal at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) before he was recently acquitted and discharged.
