Faleke sues INEC, tells Court to declare him Kogi’s governor-elect

James Faleke, Deputy Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the November 21 election in Kogi State, on Tuesday filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, demanding his declaration as governor-elect.

James Faleke

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the election inconclusive. It ordered a supplementary election which will hold on December 5.

Mr. Faleke had on Monday threatened to go to court following the adoption of Yahaya Bello by the APC national leadership as the governorship candidate of the party in the supplementary election.

He also wrote INEC demanding the removal of his name as the running mate to Mr. Bello in the supplementary election.

Mr. Bello’s adoption at the meeting of the National Working Committee of the party followed the death of the former governorship candidate, Abubakar Audu, on November 22.

The party immediately forwarded his name to INEC as replacement for Mr. Audu and that of Mr. Faleke as his running mate.

In the suit filed by his counsel, Wole Olanipekun, Mr. Faleke, a serving member of the House of Representatives, said contrary to the claim by the electoral body, the election was conclusive and that as the running mate to Mr. Audu, he should be declared winner.

The court papers were served on INEC Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Faleke said.

The deputy governorship candidate had written INEC on November 26, insisting that he was the governor-elect following Mr. Audu’s death.

He asked the Commission not to go ahead with the supplementary election.

“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 Mr. 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.

According to the result declared by INEC, Mr. Audu had the highest number of votes thus leading the 21 other candidates, including the incumbent governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, who was the flagbearer of the Peoples’ Democratic Party.