The running mate to late Abubakar Audu,
the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Saturday’s
governorship election in Kogi State, has asked the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, to declare him governor elect.
James Faleke, in a November 26 letter to
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, insisted that under Section 187 of the
1999 Constitution, he was duly elected as deputy governor of Kogi State.
While expressing sadness over the demise
of his principal, Abubakar Audu, the deputy governorship candidate said
INEC had no right under the law to declare the election inconclusive.
He accused INEC of deliberately creating what he called “legal conundrum” and urged the APC not to be a party to the action.
“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,” Mr. Faleke wrote through his counsel, Wole Olanipekun.
“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.”
In another letter to APC Chairman, John
Oyegun, Mr. Faleke urged his party to distance itself from the “Greek
Gift” being offered to it to nominate a new candidate for a planned
supplementary election in 91 polling units.
He said the election had already been
won and lost, and that the party should rather support him in
actualizing the mandate already given to APC and its candidates.
Credit: PremiumTimes
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