Counsel to All Peoples Congress, APC, Deputy Governorship candidate in Kogi’s November 21, 2015 governorship election, James Abiodun Faleke, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, leading 33 other lawyers today told the Kogi Election Appeal Tribunal in Abuja that what the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, did by declaring the November 21, 2015 Governorship Election inconclusive and going ahead to conduct a supplementary election simply amounted to circumventing the extant provisions of the constitution of the country to coronate Yahaya Bello.
Olanipekun while addressing the court maintained that section 179 subsection 2 of the constitution states very clearly that the candidate with the highest number of votes and spread in any governorship election is deemed to have been duly elected, a provision overlooked by INEC.
The Senior Advocate further stated that INEC committed more blunders by allowing the 2nd Respondent, Bello to participate in the governorship election even when he had no such locus not being a registered voter in the state nor voted during the election, a position Bello,s witness admitted under cross examination at the lower Tribunal.
“This is the first time in the history of this country that a governor would emerge without voting in an election nor being a registered voter in the state”, Olanipekun stated.
All the parties to the Appeal agreed that the petition of the Appellant, Faleke revolved around the November 21, 2015 governorship election while also agreeing that the declaration of the election inconclusive had nothing to do with the death of Prince Abubakar Audu as the event of declaration preceded Audu’s demise.
Counsel to INEC, Alex Izinyon argued that the petitioner filed his petition at the lower Tribunal out of time, but Olanipekun countered that under the extant laws, a right to present a petition before a Tribunal cannot accrue until a return is made by INEC on the election, a position which is in accord with the provisions of the Electoral Act that requires the person a person whose return is challenged in an election to be made a Respondent in the petition.
Bello’s Lead Counsel, J.B. Daudu also canvassed the dismissal of the Appellant,s petition on the grounds that the votes accruing from the two elections belong not to an individual but the party.
The lower Tribunal had June 6, 2016 ruled that Bello was validly elected as Kogi Governor, a position rejected by Faleke who approached the Appeal Court.
