It is no longer news that Kogi State has become a political laboratory in the country, since the unfortunate demise of the APC governorship candidate in the November 21, 2015 gubernatorial election, Prince Abubabar Audu. Things would have been normal in the state, but it has turned contrary to the expectation of people in the country, no thanks, to the Independent National Electoral Commission and its returning officer in the election, Professor Emmanuel Kucha; John Odigie Oyegun led All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Attorney General of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Mallami.
Late Prince Abubakar Audu went into the election with his running mate, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, whom the Constitution recognised as an associate and candidate. There have been lock jam in the interpretation of the Nigeria constitution by different legal luminaries since the death of Prince Audu, on November 22, 2015, a day after the polls were concluded and also a day when the result of the 21 local government areas were completely announced.
The Audu/Faleke ticket under the platform of the APC, scored 240, 867 ahead of the former governor, Captain Idris Wada and Arc. Yomi Awoniyi, who polled 199, 514.
The electoral umpire who claimed to be unaware of the death of Audu, declared the election inconclusive on the premise that amount of rejected and cancelled votes was higher than the margin votes casts between the winners (Audu/Faleke) and the then governor, Wada/Awoniyi.
INEC declaration on the inconclusive election, threw in a very big issues among stakeholders in the state and the country. Many thought that the late Audu’s running mate, James Faleke should have stepped into the shoe of his boss, since they both lay claim to the victory ticket, but to the chagrin of all and sundry, Alhaji Yahaya Bello was brought by the party to continue with the race, based on the personal view of the AGF, who opined that the party should be allowed to nominate another candidate and the INEC, as if waiting for that instruction, asked the APC to present another candidate, not minding the legality of the substitution and Alhaji Yahaya Bello was presented by the APC.
Before the substitution, the APC national chairman, Chief John had over the news announced that a fresh party primary would be conducted to produce a replacement to late Audu. But eventually jettison the idea and presented Bello as substitute.
The party’s decision was said to have been hinged on the fact that he (Bello) was the second runner up to late late Audu during the party’s governorship primary. But the party party’s excuse was considered as unrealistic by the running mate of late Audu. Hon. James Feleke, who out of protest wrote to the party leadership and INEC, through his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, advising the party and INEC to present Faleke as the only surviving candidate of the APC, since he jointly scored the highest votes for the party and be subsequently declared winner of the election, suffice to say that the supplementary election as declared by INEC was unnecessary because the election was won and loss ab-initio.
But the APC leadership and powers that be, ignored the advice and went ahead with Bello as the substitute while insisting that Faleke should remain the running mate to Bello, for the December 5, 2015, supplementary election as scheduled by the INEC.
However, Faleke has since proceeded to the tribunal dragging the INEC and the then governor-elect (now the governor), Yahaya Bello along. His prayer before the state governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Lokoja, is that the November 21 gubernatorial election be declared conclusive and that he (Faleke) should be returned as elected. Faleke is also saying that Bello was never a candidate or governor- elect in the first place.
There had been pressure on Faleke, to accept the running mate slot to Bello. But he (Faleke) had declined and refused to participate in the supplementary election as running mate to Bello. The implication according to legal luminaries is that Bello went into the election without a running mate and as such, went in a total contrast with the provision of the law. But APC and INEC, had insisted that Feleke remain the running mate to Bello and subsequently the election went on and Bello was declared with winner, with over 6000 votes against Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled over 200,000 votes.
Meanwhile INEC issued certificate of return to Bello, with the claim that he Bello also owned the earlier 240.88 votes cast in the November 21, 2015 election. However,Wada who is also in the tribunal praying that he should be declared winner of the election, since he scored the second highest votes and insisting that the winning votes of the APC had already died with the winner, Audu and that no one can inherit the votes of a dead person. Wada equally reminded the tribunal that 6000 votes scored by Belo cannot be said to be higher than his over 200,000 votes.
Many analysts have however argued that Faleke is the only link to the November 21 winning votes, and any attempt to arm twist him (Faleke), to accept deputy governor to Bello, then Wada will have the inevitable leverage to claim the victory as he has a very good case before the court.
Faleke had since disassociated himself from the supplementary election; things have further gone awry in the APC camp and of course, the INEC. Even when Faleke’s name was announced to collect his Certificate of Return as deputy governor elect, he was never seen.
The Director of Media, Audu/Faleke campaign organisation, Mr. Duro Meseko, explained to Saturday Telegraph during a telephone conversation, that his principal (Faleke) only participated in the November 21, 2015 general election and never took part in the supplementary election.
“We were not part of the supplementary election, my principal never fill any nomination form as running mate to Bello, so how would he present himself for Certificate of Return in the supplementary election he never participated.” Meseko insisted that’s an already winner of a general election cannot be seen as participating in an ad-hoc election.
INAUGURATION OF BELLO:
On several occasion, Faleke had insisted that he would not present himself at the inauguration since he was never a running mate to Bello, but equally held that he is the governor-elect and not any one else. It was however gathered that the pronouncement by Faleke, further threw Bello’s camp into another stalemate. It was further learnt that the APC leadership favorable to Bello began to shop for an alternative, to avoid another constitutional crises.
Hon. Simon Achuba from Ibaji in the eastern flank of the state, was said to be tipped for the job, though the plan was exposed by a Civil Society Organisation and Election Monitoring Group, Conscience Nigeria, who raised the alarm over an alleged surreptitious plan by INEC to assist Yahaya Bello, to smuggle in the name of a running mate.
The group alleged that the electoral umpire was trying to smuggle the politician into INEC official documents and backdate same in order prove to the Election Petitions Tribunal Sitting in Lokoja that Bello actually fulfilled constitutional provisions by running the supplementary election with a deputy.
However, Section 187 sub-section 1 of the Constitution is very emphatic and states in unequivocal terms that any governorship candidate for an election would not be deemed to be duly elected if he fails to run the election with a deputy. With Hon. Faleke’s letter to APC and INEC refusing to be Bello’s deputy and opting out of the supplementary election, political observers and legal pundits had wondered how Bello would overcome the hurdle of section 187 of the Constitution since he actually ran the election without a deputy.
In the statement signed by the Executive Director of Conscience Nigeria, Tosin Adeyanju the group is disturbed with reports from very credible sources establishing the fact that a former member of Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon. Simon Achuba from the Igala speaking part of the state (Kogi East) has been picked as the deputy governorship candidate who purportedly ran the supplementary election of December 5, 2015 with Bello! “We are terribly shocked with this development.
This is corruption of the highest order and must not be allowed to stand”, Adeyanju said. According to him, the confusing signal emanating from INEC’s position at the tribunal point irresistibly to the fact that the commission is up to something sinister in its quest to rationalise the inclusion of Yahaya Bello as replacement for the deceased APC candidate, Prince Audu in the 2015 election.
“Even legal pundits are at a loss as to the evasive and inherently conflicting averments in the processes so far filed on INEC’s behalf before the tribunal especially as it has to do with the deputy governorship candidate of the APC that ran with Yahaya Bello in the Supplementary election of December 5, 2015.”
“While INEC had maintained prior to the supplementary election that Hon. Faleke was Bello’s deputy, a position disputed by Faleke, facts distilled from INEC’s response to the petitions filed by the PDP and Faleke suggest rather curiously that APC and Bello had nominated another deputy governorship candidate in the supplementary election without naming who that candidate is.”
Impeccable sources within Yahaya Bello’s camp confirm that INEC’s position at the tribunal was indeed a smokescreen or scaffolding upon which a new name could be smuggled in, aided by backdated documents to support the case of Yahaya Bello.Adeyanju illustrated his group’s stance with the scenario that occurred during the collation of the December 5, 2015 supplementary election at the state collation centre, Lokoja when an agent of the PDP challenged the nomination of Bello as governorship candidate by the APC since he had no deputy as Faleke had withdrawn but the INEC National Commissioner from North Central, Amina Zakari responded that Faleke remained Bello’s deputy because his party, APC, had not withdrawn his nomination despite the fact that he had written to the electoral um-pire informing it of his intention to pull out of the race.
“Unless the party withdraws a candidate, his letter is not enough, and unless the proper channel is followed, which is through the party, he remains the running mate”, she said. So from where did a running mate suddenly emerge from, when Bello had not been sworn in? Section 187 sub-section 1 of the Nigerian Constitution states;
“In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this part of this chapter relate, a candidate for the office of Governor of a state shall not be deemed to have been validly nominated for such office unless he nominates another candidate as his associate for his running for the office of Governor, who is to occupy the office of Deputy Governor.” Adeyanju added. Adeyanju further called on the leadership of INEC to as a matter of urgency investigate this corrupt plan within its fold with a view to bringing culprits to book.
According to him, the whole world is watching the political scenario in Kogi with keen interest and that nothing short of fairness and justice by the electoral agency would be acceptable. Since this protest went into public knowledge, the Bello camp jettison the idea and eventually face the bull by the horn and announced in a media conference that Bello could be inaugurated without running mate.
The media committee for the inauguration of the state governor-elect, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, said since the running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu in the November 21st gubernatorial election, Hon. James Faleke, has refused to come forward, but the searing in will still hold. The chairman of the committee, Alhaji Ishaka Ajibola, recently in a media conference in preparation towards the inauguration, said up till the time of the press conference, Faleke has refused to accept the deputy governorship position. According to Ajibola, the party at the national and state level has already fashioned out modalities to present another deputy governor for Bello and subsequently be sworn in.
Head or tail, Bello was inaugurated without the deputy, how legal it is? Barrister Yusuf Haruna, is a legal practitioner and also in Yahaya Bello’s camp. He insisted that there is nothing Illegal because section 191 of the Constitution has explained it all.
But Barrister Shaba Ibrahim was chairman Nigeria Bar Association Kogi State, agreed that there is no where in the Constitution that provide both governor and his deputy must be inaugurated at the same time. He however, argued that Bello has no deputy in the first place, and the Constitution did not equally recognise him as governor-elect. He said the election of November 21 was already won and loss. Now that the battle has shifted to the court, Nigerians are waiting to see how the logjam would be resolved.
Credit: New Telegraph
