Dino Melaye Loses Tribunal Appeal To Smart Adeyemi.

Senator Dino Melaye lost an appeal at the Kogi National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal after the Tribunal upheld the election of Senator Smart Adeyemi as the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District.

According to Justice Isa Sambo-led tribunal, the petitioner failed to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who garnered 88,373 votes, as the winner of the poll earlier held in March 2019.

INEC declared that he defeated Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 62,133.

But Melaye had in his petition urged the tribunal to declare him the winner of the election or order a fresh election.

He claimed that the Nov. 16 senatorial return election was marred by violence, over-voting, manipulation of figures and other irregularities and called for total cancellation of the affected areas.

But in its judgment on Wednesday, the tribunal, in a unanimous decision, held that both Melaye and his party failed to prove their claims in the petition.