Seven registered voters in Kogi State have sued the Federal Government in the Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS, alleging inconsistency in the emergence of Yahaya Bello as the state governor-elect.
The suit, with registration number ECW/CCJ/APP/02/16, filed at the ECOWAS Court headquarters, Abuja, was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday.
The plaintiffs, named as “citizens of Nigeria and registered voters in Kogi state,” include; Sule Audu, Ikeleji Agada and Labaran Dadio.
Others are Isaka Isa, Abdul Audu, Ademu Abdullahi and Sulaiman Abdul.
The suit filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Festus Ogwuche named FG as the sole defendant.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to compel Nigeria to apply the instrumentality of its Constitution and International Treaties and Conventions to redress alleged anomalies flowing from the conduct of the state governorship election.
Specifically, they alleged that the emergence of Bello as the governor-elect “circumvent and capsize the key element in the exercise of democracy”.
They contended: “The emergence of Bello falls short of the minimum standards of free, fair, transparent, genuine and credible elections which will be the basis for the popular participation of the people.
“Bello never campaigned for the elections, excepting for his nomination within his own party, and did not interact with the people on the larger scale of those who do not belong to his party.
“He never presented his manifesto, or agenda in terms of his promises and goals and initiatives he would undertake if voted into office.
“The people of Kogi state were never given an opportunity to assess him, size him up or verify his personal and political resume.”
The plaintiff contended that the action of the defendant’s electoral authority did not provide the people of the state an equal opportunity as voters to participate fully in the election.
They said the vote cast for the late Abubakar Audu “cannot be votes also for his political party and thus, the transfer of those votes to Bello is a violation of their rights as voters.
“In fact, what the defendant did upon the demise of Audu was to get the ruling party- All Progressives Congress – to withdraw into its political cocoon to determine who will be governor of the state.”
The plaintiffs prayed the court to direct that measures should be taken to entrench transparency and fairness in the election of the governor of the state in line with both local and International laws.
The sought an order compelling the defendant, its agents and privies to entrench universal values and principles of democracy and respect for human rights which were allegedly absent during the supplementary election.
(NAN)
