Thick cloud of gloom covered the length and breadth of Kogi State today after the dismissal of Hon. James Abiodun Faleke’s petition by Justice Halima Mohammed.
Justice Halima, I pray Almighty heal you of Malaria that affected you badly today. You read your ‘own’ judgement as if you are not the author of the piece. You kept making corrections as you read out the ‘dodgy-dodgy’ judgement. Once again, I pray that Malaria will disappear before tomorrow morning.
It will be recalled that I alerted the whole world a few days ago about the ominous fears across Kogi state that hawks in the Presidency and probably with tacit support of our beloved President will interfere with the bitterest election petition in the history of Kogi state. These aliens knows little or nothing about the immediate and long-lasting consequences of their interference. They do not know how we handle ‘our things’ in Kogi State. I pointedly mentioned that we Kogites are weary of the activities of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mallam Abubakar Malami, SAN. The man came out smoking the next day on the dailies defending his obnoxious stance on Kogi affairs.
Your judgement today will be addressed in details before the end of this week. In your judgement madam, you claimed that votes belong to the party, not the candidate. You claimed that votes can be inherited. You refused to declare if November 21, 2015 was conclusive or not. You shied away from questions on Yahaya Bello’s nomination, failing to decide whether it was valid or not all because James Faleke lacks locus standi. I will pause here on today’s judgement.
While we will want to assume you shied away from the ‘meat’ in Faleke’s petition because he lacks locus standi, we wait patiently for the ‘technical issues’ that your panel will use to shy away from tomorrow’s judgement.
I humbly present to you a petitioner with locus standi, Captain Idris Wada, the candidate of Peoples Democratic Paarty, PDP, and former governor of Kogi State.
You ruled that Faleke does not have locus standi to approach the tribunal but Kogites and global observers are fully aware that Wada certainly has locus standi to approach the tribunal, hence, we expect your judgement to address all issues raised by Wada in his petition.
Madam Justice, in your ruling, you mentioned that on the contention that Yahaya Bello did not go into the election with a deputy by Faleke is crucial to the case but that Faleke did not provide enough evidence why Yahaya Bello should be disqualified. While this does not sound so convincing to us in Kogi state, I want to assure you that I have read through Wada/PDP petition and well aware of all exhibits tendered to show that Yahaya Bello’s nomination was invalid. Kindly read through my article on January 22, 2016 (Incontrovertible Proofs That Yahaya Bello Was Invalidly Nominated for Dec. 5 ‘Supplementary’ Election – Adamu Ojonugwa).
Madam Justice, on the issue of candidate substitution, you declared that although issue of substitution is a pre-election matter but in this case it was done in the process of an ongoing election which is a post election matter. Wada/PDP petition queried the validity of APC’s substitution of candidates on the strength of our constitution and electoral act.
Kogi people are well informed of the report of the forensic evidence presented to your lordship. We are fully aware of the details and will be watching you closely on that tomorrow morning.
Madam Justice, you ruling tomorrow is about the destinies of over 3 million Kogi indigenes and we are all concerned about the outcome. Once again, I pray Almighty heal you as you preside over tomorrow’s all-important judgement.
– Adamu Ojonugwa writes from Lokoja.
