Kogi guber polls: Tribunal dismisses petition, Wada knows fate today

Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed the petition of James Faleke challenging the legitimacy of Yahaya Bello as governor of Kogi State.

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Halima Mohammed, held that Faleke could not be declared governor of Kogi State because he was not nominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its substantive candidate in the 2015 Kogi governorship election.

Justice Mohammed stated that the APC was right to have nominated Bello to replace the late Abubakar Audu as its candidate in the December 2015 supplementary election.‎

The judge held that Faleke had no locus-standi to file the petition since he was not nominated by the APC as its governorship candidate.‎

The justice further said that “votes cast in an election belong to a political party,” which nominates‎ a candidate; hence it was lawful for the party to transfer votes polled by Audu to Bello.

She, thereafter, dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

The tribunal however reserved judgement in the petition filed by Idris Wada, former governor of the state and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, where he contended that Bello was an interloper who had no business with the exercise.

However, the tribunal will determine the ruling on Wada’s appeal today.

‎The tribunal in its ruling had held that, Faleke remained the valid deputy governor of the state because there was no evidence to show that he wrote to his party withdrawing his candidature as deputy governor as required by law.‎

Faleke had petitioned the tribunal challenging the declaration of Bello as governor of Kogi State.‎

Crisis started when the APC replaced Audu, its late candidate in the November 21, 2015 governorship election in the state with Bello.

Faleke, who was the running mate of Audu in the election, felt slighted by the action, and then asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare him winner of the election. But the INEC declined to oblige him.

INEC went ahead to hold a supplementary election with Bello as a substitute candidate for the APC.‎

Bello’s argument was that he was duly nominated by his party to represent them in the supplementary election, and that he scored the highest number of votes in the exercise.