Posted on: 09:46 Mon, 30 Nov 2015



Idris Wada, governor of Kogi state
and candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in the
November 21 election, says the votes
of Abubakar Audu, his main rival in
the poll, “died with him”.

Audu passed on shortly after the
Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) declared the
election inconclusive.

The electoral commission explained
that a winner could not be declared
because the number of cancelled
votes was higher than the margin
between the two leading contenders.

Audu, who was ahead, polled
240,861 votes, while Wada got
199,514 votes, leaving a margin of
41,353, which was less than the
49,953 votes that were voided.

INEC subsequently scheduled a
supplementary election for
December 5 and asked APC to
replace its late candidate.

But in a statement on Sunday, Wada,
who had earlier expressed
reservation over INEC’s directive,
accused the commission of doing “a
hatchet job”.

He said being the only surviving
candidate with the “majority of
lawful votes cast”, INEC ought to
issue him a certificate of return.

“Whatever votes Audu scored in the
election died with him,” read the
statement signed on his behalf by
Phrank Shaibu, his chief
communications manager.

Wada described as “specious” INEC’s
argument that APC’s right to
substitution was sustained by the
electoral act, saying the electoral
body should know that it is for the
court, not the commission, to
determine which course of action is
effective or not.

“In arriving at a decision, INEC
merely carried out the directives of
the attorney-general of the
federation… the AGF is not
competent to issue directives to INEC
to allow APC to substitute its
candidate for the Kogi guber poll
and that such directives are null and
void for its inconsistency with the
provisions of the constitution,” the
statement read.

“To us as a party, the most egregious
of the faux pas committed by INEC is
asking the APC to lawfully nominate
a candidate for the supplementary
governorship election without a
valid and legally cognizable primary
election of the party conducted
within the mandatory timeliness
specified by the electoral act.

“It is our considered opinion that,
INEC, more than any other body,
ought to know that having regards to
the provisions of section 141 of the
electoral act, 2010, votes scored by a
candidate who died during an
election cannot be inherited by or
transferred to a person who was not
a candidate at the said election and
who did not participate in all stages
of such election, for the purpose of
concluding such election.”

He said it was on the strength of the
position of the electoral act on the
developments in the state that he has
asked the court to compel INEC to
issue him with a certificate of return.

The statement added that the party
was hopeful that the court will issue
an order of injunction restraining
APC from organising or holding a
fresh primary election for the
purpose of “any supplementary
election”.