Court rules on Kogi Supplementary Poll on Friday

Category: Kogi News

Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja said yesterday he will deliver judgment in the four suits challenging  the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election in Kogi State on December 5, 2015.

This, he said, was to avoid a situation whereby the rerun would be conducted under a grave shadow of doubt over its legal validity. This is even as the Audu family rejected Alhaji Yahaya Bello as the All Progressives Congress (APC) replacement for the late Prince Audu, who died on November 22. There was election the previous day, he was leading by 41,000 votes until INEC declared it inconclusive and ordered a rerun.

Although the APC is yet to be served with the processes, the court has consolidated the multiple suits and reduced the issues canvassed for determination to only three. This was after counsel narrowed the issues to only those concerning the law to the exclusion of others in view of the urgency of the matter.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers told the court that they were unable to effect service on the APC which is listed as the third defendant in view of the crisis at its secretariat in Abuja.

The lawyers are Mr. Goddy Uche (SAN) for Governor Idris Wada and Johnson Usman, Victor Eden for Emmanuel Igbokwe, while T.M Inuwa and Mrs. Maimuna Shiru appeared for INEC and the Attorney-General of the Federation respectively.

The judge also said he would not be tempted to invoke the provisions of Section 295 (2) which give him the powers to refer the matter to the Court of Appeal for constitutional interpretation since time is of essence.

The plaintiffs in the suits are Governor Wada, Emmanuel Daiko of People for Democratic Change, Emmanuel Igbokwe – a member of the House of Representatives, PDP, Imo State and Johnson Usman who described himself as an eligible voter.

In his suit, Wada is praying the court to declare him winner of the November 21 election, while Usman, Emmanuel Daikwo and Igbokwe were asking the court to conduct a fresh election.

The INEC had on November 22 declared the Kogi state guber election inconclusive and announced that a supplementary election will be conducted to determine a clear winner.

Meanwhile, the late Prince Audu’s running mate, Hon. James Faleke yesterday filed a separate fresh suit against INEC and APC at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

In the suit filed through his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Faleke is praying the court to declare that election to the office of the governor of a state can only be conducted in the manner expressly stipulated in Section 179(2) (a), (b), (3) (a), (b), 4 (a), (b) and (5) of the constitution.

Also, Audu’s son, Mustapha, said yesterday his family has rejected Alhaji Bello. Speaking exclusively to Daily Sun, Mustapha said his family was fully in support of Faleke, as a worthy replacement.

“Already, Faleke has gone to court because the name on the ticket before the election was declared inconclusive was Audu/Faleke and not Bello/ Faleke. On this note, we, the Audu family, are standing by Faleke. The APC did not consult with the family of Audu before taking that decision; it did not consult the Kogi people and that is why there is crisis there now.” 

Also, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Adesina Ogunyale of Ogunyale Chambers said only the interpretation of the matter by the Supreme Court would end the impasse.

In a statement, Ogunyale said with the political impasse, INEC took the right step by seeking the advice of the Attorney-General of the Federation/Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on how to handle the  matter. He said the case was very complex because there was no provision for such in the Constitution hence, the only option is for all the parties to approach the apex court for interpretation of the matter.

Source: The Sun

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