Bello can’t inherit Audu’s votes, won’t be gov – PDP

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The Peoples Democratic Party has described as a waste of time, resources and ridiculous shadow-chasing the action of the Independent National Electoral Commission in declaring the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Yahaya Bello, as the governor-elect of Kogi State.

The PDP alleged that INEC, in a bid to satisfy the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government, succeeded in making a mockery of itself and the entire electoral process by trying to install an individual, who it said, was not a valid candidate for the election.

The party also alleged that Bello merely scored, under his name, a paltry 6,885 votes in the supplementary election as against the 204,877 votes polled by the PDP candidate, Governor Idris Wada, in the overall election.

These were contained in a statement on Sunday by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh.

The opposition party stated, “The action of INEC in trying to transfer the votes earlier garnered by the dead APC candidate, Prince Audu Abubakar, to another individual is completely impractical and alien to the nation’s constitution and the Electoral Act.

“The declaration by INEC that Bello polled the highest number of votes is an embarrassing travesty of the nation’s democracy and electoral process.

“Not only that this individual is not in any way a valid candidate in the election, he also did not score the overall votes declared against his name by INEC and cannot be declared winner under any circumstance within the provisions of our laws.”

Metuh said the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act were clear to the effect that with the unfortunate death of Audu before the conclusion of the election, and the fact that the laws did not permit the replacement of candidates once the balloting had commenced, the APC had crashed out of the race.

It said this left the PDP candidate, Wada, as the clear winner, having garnered 204,877 votes to top all other contestants, since Audu, the hitherto leading contestant, died with his votes.

He said, “It is therefore unfortunate that INEC disregarded the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act, which left it with no other legitimate option but to declare Governor Idris Wada the governor-elect.

“Instead, it went ahead to preside over a charade, for which it is now attempting to illicitly hand over the votes cast for a dead man to another person, who did not participate in the overall election.

“We all, including INEC and the APC, know that nothing other than declaring Wada winner of the election fulfills the requirements of the law under the circumstance.

“The APC cannot have two candidates in one election and the bitter in-fighting within their fold shows the absurdity of INEC’s decision in that regard.

“Indeed, we remain shocked that INEC could elect to create such an embarrassing and inciting setting just to show its ‘friendship’ with the ruling government.”

Metuh called on the APC and Bello to know that Wada remained “validly elected within the dictates of our laws under the circumstance.”

He appealed to members of the PDP and its supporters to remain calm, saying the law would soon take the centre stage to “right the wrong created by INEC and declare Wada as the governor.”

Meanwhile, the Kogi State chapter of the PDP has rejected the result of the governorship election in the state, stating its readiness to approach the election petitions tribunal to challenge the outcome of the poll.

The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Bode Ogunmola, in a telephone interview on Sunday, said the decision of the state electoral commissioner to declare Bello the governor-elect was not acceptable to the PDP.

Ogunmola added, “The position of the party is that the election result is not acceptable and we will be approaching the tribunal for justice.’’

He submitted there were several grounds on which the PDP would anchor its petition before the tribunal.

“You heard when the returning officer said Yahaya Bello is the candidate with the majority of the votes cast, but he is not; the majority of the votes cast belong to someone else,” he said.

According to INEC result, the APC scored 6,885 votes against PDP’s 5,363 votes in Saturday’s supplementary election.

This brought the total votes for the APC to 247,752 to win the governorship contest while the PDP came second with 204,877 votes.

In the meantime, the deputy governorship candidate of the APC in Kogi State, Mr. James Faleke, has said he has decided to leave his reaction on the outcome of the election in the hands of God.

Faleke was the running mate of the party in the November 21 election, when the late Abubakar Audu was the governorship candidate of the APC.

In a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday, Faleke said he was leaving everything to God to take control.

Asked if he would proceed with his litigation, he said he wanted God, who is the ultimate decider, to take control.

The conversation goes:

Question: What is your response to the declaration of the APC Kogi State Governorship candidate during Saturday’s supplementary election.

Answer: I do not know what to say. We are leaving everything to God; I want God to take control.

Question: Are you still proceeding with your litigation?

Answer: I said I want God to take control. God is the ultimate decider.

Question: But if they say you should continue to be his deputy, will you accept it?

Answer: Aaah! Oga! You do not understand my English? I said I leave everything to God to take control.

Also, the Audu/Faleke Campaign organisation has condemned the way INEC handled the governorship election in Kogi state.

The organisation, in a statement in Lokoja on Sunday, stated that the final result, as announced by INEC, had vindicated its earlier position that the election should not have been declared inconclusive.

It stated, “The election of November 21 was won by Audu /Faleke ticket and should have been declared as such.”

The statement by Duro Meseko described the supplementary election as a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.

According to the statement, in the final result of the supplementary election, declared by INEC, the APC polled 6,885 votes while the PDP scored 5,363 votes, making a total of 12,248 votes.

It said this was a far cry from the 49, 353 registered voters that INEC claimed to have based its decision to declare the election inconclusive on.

“It is now crystal clear to everybody that the Kogi governorship election of November 21 was already won and lost before the strange supplementary election was introduced.

“We therefore urge our supporters to remain calm and steadfast while the law takes its rightful course,” the statement added.

Source: Punch