The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello.
Recall that Governor Bello was nominated by the All progressives Congress [APC] following the death of the party flag-bearer in the 2015 Kogi State gubernatorial election, Audu Abubakar.
Mr. James Faleke, the running mate of Audu Abubakar, however, rejected Bello’s nomination and asked the court to nullify his election and declare him the right candidate.
The decision of the Supreme Court had been preidcted variably by political pundits especially within the APC circle.
One such person is the Lagos State APC Publicity Secretary, Mr. Joe Igbokwe who described Bello’s nomination as “travesty of justice”.
Mr. Igbokwe, lamenting on the travesty, said:
“Now a combination of ethnic politics, Primordial sentiments, and fear of the unknown led APC Kogi and APC National to do the unthinkable by pushing Alhaji Bello who lost the primaries, and may not have supported the APC candidate in the cause of the elections proper to steal the mandate won by Prince Audu and James Faleke in a keenly contested exercise fraught with excruciating pains , doubts, apprehension, anxiety, fatigue, panic and unease .
“What was their excuse? Faleke did not partake in the primaries. Now do Deputy Governors take part in Primaries?
“This is the absurdity that led to the emergence of an interloper and intruder, Alhaji Bello.
“I rely on this because the election had been won and lost before Prince Audu died.
“This has been proved beyond reasonable doubts by the miserable outcome of the useless supplementary election.
“This grave injustice and open stealing of another person’s mandate taking cover in a confusing and complicated Document called the Electoral Act.”
Mr. Igbokwe then went ahead and predicted victory for Mr. Faleke in thhe Supreme Court, saying:
“I know fully well that Supreme Court of Nigeria will do the needful when Faleke gets there in the fullness of time.
“Audu/ Faleke got the majority of votes in Kogi governorship election and got the mandate to preside over the affairs in that state for four years.
“That Faleke refused to accept the poisoned chalice as deputy governor should serve as a signal to the interlopers and intruders in Kogi that Wednesday event is not the end of the matter.
“James Faleke please go to sleep.
“You are the owner of the game when common sense returns even though common sense is not common.
That however was not to be.
On the other hand, another APC chieftain in Kogi State, Mallam Suleiman Abdulmalik, has predicted doom for James Abiodun Faleke.
He predicted that the judgement would mark the final political burial rites of Faleke, unless he embraced the yet-to-be constituted reconciliation committee for all the aggrieved members of APC.
According to him after the Supreme Court judgement, Faleke’s political future will be in jeopardy in the state.
That is unless he reintegrate himself with the people because he lacks tangible structures in the Kogi West and the entire state.
Abdulmalik in a statement issued in Lokoja on Sunday, said the Supreme Court will only affirm the judgements of the Election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal which ruled in favour of Governor Yahaya Bello.
According to him, the Electoral Act is all about the wishes of the people and the Supreme Court cannot go against the people.
He argued that there is lacuna in Faleke’s demand since the Electoral Act did not envisage what happened in Kogi State.
Meanwhile, Mr. Faleke, on Tuesday defended his decision to challenge the election of the Kogi State Governor, Mr. Yahaya Bello.
Faleke spoke in a statement by his spokesman, Duro Meseko.
He said that he had no regrets challenging the decision of the Independent National Election Commission, which declared the November 21, 2015 governorship election in the state as inconclusive.
He stated, “We have heard the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court jurists upholding Yahaya Bello as governor.
“We shall wait for the full text of the judgment to know why they came to that conclusion.
“But let it be stated here that we have no regrets challenging the declaration of our election as inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“What we did was to defend the votes cast for Audu/Faleke by the over 240,000 electorates on November 21, 2015.
“The people voted for us as candidates not the APC because they believe in the kind of leadership we offered to provide for them during our campaigns.
“It would therefore amount to crass betrayal of the trust of the electorate not to have defended their votes till the end.”
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