A new twist has emerged in the November 21, 2015 Kogi State governorship election Sunday as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared its candidate, Governor Idris Wada, as the winner.
This is coming on the heels of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaration that Alhaji Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won last Saturday’s supplementary poll.
Meanwhile, the Audu/Faleke campaign organisation said it had been vindicated. Hon. James Faleke declined to run with Bello in the rerun.
The election in Kogi definitely will open up new phases to constitutional legality for subsequent ones as the gladiators are yet to sheath their swords.
Among the contending issues at the fore-ground was the demise of the late Prince Audu Abubakar,which led the electoral body giving the candidate’s party the window to substitute its late candidate.
The PDP in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh yesterday dismissed the weekend rerun which its candidate, Gov. Wada participated in, “as a waste of time, scarce national resources and ridiculous shadow-chasing.” The statement claimed that Bello was not a valid candidate for the election.
it read as follow: “INEC, in the bid to satisfy Buhari-led APC Federal Government, succeeded only in making a mockery of itself and the entire electoral process, by trying to illegally install an individual who, apart from not being a valid candidate, scored under his name, a paltry 6,885 votes in the so-called supplementary election as against the 204,877 votes polled by the PDP candidate, Governor Idris Wada in the overall election.”
Metuh also faulted the window given to the APC to substitute its earlier candidate, noting that “the action of INEC in trying to transfer the votes earlier garnered by the late Prince Audu to another individual is completely impractical and alien to the nation’s Constitution and the Electoral Act.
“The declaration by INEC that Yahaya Bello polled the highest number of votes is an embarrassing travesty of the nation’s democracy and electoral process. Not only that this individual is not in anyway a valid candidate in the election, he also did not score the overall votes declared against his name by INEC and cannot be declared winner under any circumstance within the provisions of our laws.
“It is therefore, unfortunate that INEC disregarded the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, which left it with no other legitimate option than to declare Governor Idris Wada the governor-elect. Instead, it went ahead to preside over a charade, for which it is now attempting to illicitly hand over the votes cast for a dead man to another person, who did not participate in the overall election.
“Our advice to the APC, Bello and their co-travellers in illegality is that theirs is a mere pipe dream as Governor Wada remains validly elected within the dictates of our laws under the circumstance.
“Finally, we charge all our members and supporters to remain calm and resist all provocations from the APC, which is now seeking the opportunity to trigger violence in the face of their misfortune, especially as the law will soon take the center stage, right the wrong created by INEC and declare Governor Wada winner,” Metuh said.
In the meantime, Audu/Faleke Campaign Organisation yesterday expressed disappointment over the handling of the election, noting that the final result declared by INEC has vindicated its earlier claims that the November 21 exercise was won by Audu/Faleke ticket and should have been declared as such.
This was made known in a statement signed by the Director, Media organisation, Hon. Duro Meseko which described the election as a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.
According to the statement, in the rerun final results declared by INEC, APC polled 6,885 votes while the PDP scored 5,363 votes, making a total of 12, 248 votes, a far cry from the 49,353 registered voters that INEC claimed to have based its decision to declare the election inconclusive.
“It is now crystal clear to everybody that the Kogi election of November 21 was already won and lost before the strange supplementary election was introduced. We therefore, urge our supporters to remain calm and steadfast while the law takes its rightful course,” it added.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
