By Our Reporter
November 29, 2015 – A political group, Kogi Equity Front(KEF) has called on Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to declare Prince Audu Abubakar’s running mate in last Saturday’s election, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke as winner of the election.
The group said it will disrupt the election if INEC goes ahead to hold the suplementary election as scheduled. Recall that the All Progressive Congress(APC) has picked Yahaya Bello as replacement for the late Audu.
Yayaha Bello came second in the primaries that produced the late Audu.
But according to the group, an official letter of protest has been sent by party stakeholders in Kogi state, to protest the inconclusive status hanged on Saturday’s election, after discovery that the figure quoted by INEC in respect of registered voters in those units that were affected by INEC cancelation was over blown.
“It was discovered that only only 25,000 pvc was issued by INEC in respect of those units. Besides, over 7000 of the cards are still unclaimed in INEC custody. How Prof Emmanuel Kucha arrived at his 49000 figure remains suspect.
“The letter was to be signed by the national exco of the party for onward transmission to INEC headquarters. However as I write, they refused to sign let alone forwarding the letter to INEC. They claimed the president is not around and that they must wait for him. Yet the letter must get to INEC not later than 72 hours from Sunday. By tomorrow, the period of grace will expire”, the group said.
In a statement signed by Director General of the group, Pastor Stanley Ajileye, the group is demanding among others immediate announcement of the winner of last Saturday’s election in line with section 179 of 1999 constitution which states as follow:
“A candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates; (a) he has the highest of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the State.
“Declaration of Audu’s running mate, Hon James Abiodun Faleke as the eligible heir of the victory he jointly earned with Late Prince Audu in line with the provisionof section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)] the Supreme Court held, in effect, that “if a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, the person elected with him as Deputy governor shall be sworn in as Governor and he shall nominate a new Deputy-Governor who shall be appointed by the Governor with the approval of a simple majority of the house of Assembly of the State,”
