The election saga in Kogi state took a different dimension on Monday, with reports that the All Progressives Congress has submitted the nomination of Yahaya Bello (FairPlus) , as a replacement for the late Prince ABubakar, the APC governorship candidate.
Unconfirmed reports reaching us this afternoon has it that in a meeting which was held at Lokoja this morning with some top APC stalwarts, it has been resolved that James Abiodun Faleke is to replace late Prince Abubakar Audu, with Muhammed Audu, son of late Prince Abubakar Audu as his running mate and they are presently heading for APC headquarter, Abuja.
According to reports, Faleke has sent a letter to the INEC headquarters and the APC leadership informing them of the latest development. A meeting between him and the APC leadership will take place later today in Abuja.
As it stands, there is going to be a serious legal battle to resolve the constitutional crisis at hand. The Faleke camp believes that the supplementary poll is unnecessary as the election was already won and lost on 21 November.
In the election the late APC candidate, led Wada by about 41,000 votes. But INEC insisted the election in 91 polling units must be conducted to declare the winner. According to the electoral umpire, there were 49,000 registered voters in the areas, more than the margin of victory of the APC candidate.
It turned out, according to lawyers, that INEC did not do its mathematics properly as the number of voters qualified to vote with permanent voters card, is about 25,000, less than the 41,000 votes Audu had piled up to lead Wada in the 21 November election.
More to come…
