Kogi Polls Crisis: James Faleke Picks Audu’s Son as Deputy

James Faleke,the running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State, has picked Mohammed,Audu’s son, as his deputy.

Faleke is opposed to the supplementary election which INEC has scheduled for Saturday and has previously asked INEC to declare him winner of the polls.

He said the party had requested him to nominate a deputy in accordance with the constitutional provision. He told a gathering of APC members in Kogi on Monday that Audu’s death has placed a moral burden on him, saying he would fight on until “victory is accomplished”.

Yahaya Bello, who came second in the August 28 primary which produced Audu, has since been picked by APC headquarters and is the choice of the party for the supplementary poll. Leaders of the party are currently meeting at the APC headquarters in Abuja to apparently resolve the Kogi crisis.

In a letter to John Oyegun, chairman of the APC, Faleke described the decision to choose Bello as “an act of injustice”, saying he “remains the governor-elect” and would never surrender his mandate. He wondered why Bello, whom he said abandoned the party because of his failure to clinch its ticket, should be the beneficiary of a process he worked against.

Faleke alleged that Bello worked for the PDP in the November election. In an earlier letter to INEC, Faleke faulted the decision of the commission to declare the election as inconclusive. He also expressed reservation over the directive given to the APC to replace Audu, arguing that even if a fresh exercise were to hold, he ought to be considered since he ran on a joint ticket with the deceased.

“In law and logic, no new candidate can inherit or be a beneficiary of the votes already cast, counted and declared by INEC before that candidate was nominated and purportedly sponsored,” Faleke said in a letter written on his behalf by Wole Olanipekun, his counsel.

“Assuming without conceding that INEC is even right to order a supplementary election, the votes already cast, counted and declared on Saturday, 25th November 2015, were votes for the joint constitutional ticket of Prince Abubakar Audu and our client. “Therefore, no new or supplementary candidate can hijack, aggregate, appropriate or inherit the said votes.”

Idris Wada, governor of the state and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, is also asking INEC to issue him the certificate of return since the votes that Audu scored have died with him. Wada said as the situation stands now, he is the only surviving candidate with majority of the lawful votes cast.