Five constitutional hurdles that must be scaled to remove Melaye

Yahaya Bello wants to get rid of Dino Melaye as the senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly. Dino Melaye wants to get rid of Yahaya Bello as Governor of Kogi State. Two statements of fact — the former well and truly in progress, the later still awaiting take-off. 

According to Pius Kolawole, Special Adviser to the State Governor on Political Affairs, 188,588 of the 360,098 registered voters (representing 52.3 per cent) in the senatorial district, have approved Melaye’s recall.

The figure is already a subject of controversy, but what else needs to be done to successfully boot Melaye out of the Senate? There’re quite a few of them.

THE PETITION

According to section 69 of the 1999 Constitution, A member of the Senate or of the House 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.

It is this petition that Bello’s camp claims to be in possession of. And it is one that cannot be falsified. Why?

VERIFICATION

The answer is that INEC will verify the submitted petition. The constitution says the petition is thereafter, in a referendum conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission within ninety days of the date of receipt of the petition, approved by a simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency.

To do this, INEC issues a public notice on the date, time and location of the verification of signatures on the petition.

ALSO SEE: INEC receives signatures on Dino Melaye’s recall

REFERENDUM

If the number of verified signatures falls short of the required 51 percent, INEC will dismiss the petition. But if the condition is met, INEC conducts a referendum within 90 days of receipt of the petition. This referendum is a simple yes or no vote on whether the senator should be recalled.

CERTIFICATE OF RECALL

If a simple majority of the referendum participants elect to recall the lawmaker, INEC will then forward a Certificate of Recall to the President of the Senate to effect the recall.

THE RECALL

The Senate President will ensure that the senator in question is shown the way out of the Senate. Were this to become Melaye’s fate, it would be an awkward scenario for Bukola Saraki, the current Senate President, to lead his die-hard loyalist out of the upper chamber.

However, that is at the moment a tall order. Only collection of signatures has been done, and it could well fall like a pack of cards at the first hurdle of INEC verification.