A Constitutional crisis is brewing in Kogi State. On January 27, 2015, the same day the Supreme Court gave a landmark decision in which it affirmed the election of Mr Nyesom Wike as the duly elected governor of Rivers State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello was sworn in as the democratically elected Governor of Kogi State without a deputy governor. With this development, there is little doubt that the apex court will soon be called upon again to deliver another watershed decision.
On April 11, 2015, elections to the office of Governor of Kogi State held. On the ballot in the Kogi Governorship election were Prince Abubakar Audu as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with James Faleke as his deputy governorship candidate. Flying the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was Alhaji Idris Wada, then incumbent governor with his deputy as running mate. Several other political parties also fielded candidates. At the end of the exercise on April 11, 2015, results were declared in 20 out of the 21 Local councils while the results in one LGA was cancelled thus rendering the election inconclusive. With respect to the results already declared in the 20 LGAs where elections were concluded, Prince Audu of the APC was leading with Wada of the PDP, a close second. A supplementary election in the remaining LGA was scheduled to enable the electoral exercise be concluded and a definite winner emerge.
Before the supplementary elections could be held in the lone LGA, the candidate of the APC, Prince Abubakar Audu succumbed to the cold hands of death. A mini-crisis arose as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was thrown into a quandary as to what to do in the circumstances since no precedence of similar circumstances existed in Nigeria’s electoral history. INEC initially announced that it would constitute a panel of its legal consultants to advise it on what next steps to take in the matter. However, to the consternation of the public, INEC instead chose to approach the Attorney-General of the Federation for advice. Most neutral observers were scandalised. The “Independent” in the name of INEC means exactly that: the body should be independent of any arm of government and should be neutral at all times.
The Honorable Attorney-General is a partisan card-carrying member of the APC which was a principal interested party in the dispute. And so it transpired that the AGF advised INEC to ask the APC nominate another candidate for the supplementary election in the said one LGA. APC then nominated Alhaji Yahaya Bello who filled a fresh nomination form C.F. 001 and submitted same to INEC which accepted it. Faleke who was the duly nominated running mate to Prince Audu resisted this move on the basis that what he held with the late Prince Audu was a joint ticket and that with the death of the later, he was entitled to replace him as the governorship candidate and nominate another person as deputy. For that reason, Faleke did not fill the joint nomination form subsequently submitted by APC and Bello to INEC. On the evening of January 27, 2015, Faleke in a live Channels Television interview confirmed that he never filled the nomination form submitted by the APC to INEC containing the name of Yahaya Bello as governorship candidate.
A perusal of the said INEC Form C.F. 001 submitted by the APC to INEC clearly shows that the space in the form where the particulars of a deputy-governorship candidate of the APC should have been filled in was left blank. It may interest the public to know that there is only one joint nomination form to be filled by the governorship and deputy-governorship candidates. The said Form C.F. 001 submitted by APC to INEC in Kogi State did not contain the name, details, qualifications, particulars and signature of a deputy-governorship candidate. That nomination form is therefore inchoate and a complete nullity. APC had no valid candidates for the supplementary elections.
Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, Abuja
Credit: Thisday
