Pressure mounts on Wada not to handover, to wait court order

Pressure is mounting on the Kogi State government led by Idris Wada not to hand over to the winner of the recent gubernatorial election but to rather wait for the order of the court.

Evidence of this emerged yesterday as senators and other heavy weights in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were said to have asked the sitting administration to stay put and rather expect the court to annul the election of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Four cases were filed in court when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the Kogi election inconclusive and the sudden demise of Audu Abubakar, the PDP candidate who was coasting home to victory.

The sitting governor asked the court to stop the rerun in the remaining wards and go ahead and declare him winner since he polled the second highest votes. The running mate to Audu (Adeleke) had also asked the court to declare him as the new APC flag-bearer since the main standard-bearer had died. Other interest-parties also sued INEC. The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction but that all parties should go to the tribunal. Thus, the election was concluded while the aggrieved parties headed to the tribunal.

The governor set up a transition committee headed by his deputy to work out the modalities for a smooth handover to the incoming administration, but BusinessDay gathered that pressure is mounting on Wada not to “chicken out”.

Awoniyi Yomi, deputy governor, reacting to the constitution of the transition committee, said it was rather a house-cleaning exercise to make sure records were put straight and to equally assess what the out-going administration had done with the mandate given to them by the good people of Kogi four years ago.

The out-going number two citizen of the state said this at Government House, Lokoja, during the inauguration of the Transitional Committee which he heads as chairman.