Posted on: 01:16 Sun, 06 Dec 2015



The candidate of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in the Kogi State
governorship election, Mr Yahaya
Bello, has been declared the winner
of the election.

Mr Bello, who is substitute to late Mr
Abubakar Audu, defeated the
incumbent Governor, Captain Idris
Wada, of the Peoples Democratic
Party who was seeking a second term
in office.

Declaring the results of the historic
election, which was concluded, with
a supplementary election held on
December 5, the Returning Officer of
the electoral body, Professor
Emmanuel Kucha, said the APC’s
candidate polled 247,752 to defeat
Captain Wada who got 204,877 votes.

Collation of the supplementary
election results started late Saturday
night, with the official of the
electoral body giving a breakdown of
results from the earlier election held
on November 21.

After that election, the electoral body
declared the election inconclusive
and fixed a supplementary election
for December 5.

After election results from the 21
local government areas were collated
on Sunday, November 22, the
candidate of the APC, late Audu, was
leading while the incumbent
Governor, Captain Idris Wada of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
trailed by a margin less than the
number of cancelled votes.

The candidate of the APC had
240,867 votes while that of the PDP
polled 199,514 votes.

But the election was declared
inconclusive by the INEC, which said
canceled 49,953 votes were higher
than the margin between the leading
candidate and the runner-up.

After the supplementary election of
December 5, the APC’s candidate got
additional 6,885 while the PDP
candidate polled 5,363.

The substitution of the late candidate
of the APC had triggered divergent
views, as to what the Nigerian
Constitution and the Electoral Act
proscribe, when the death of a
candidate occurs during an electoral
process.

Most arguments have focused on
section 33 of the Electoral Act.

It reads: “No political party shall be
allowed to change or substitute its
candidate whose name has been
submitted pursuant to section 31 of
the Act, except in the case of death or
withdrawal by the candidate”.

Aggrieved by the statement of the
Attorney General of the Federation
and the Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami’s, that was legal
for the APC to substitute the late
candidate, Captain Wada
approached a court, questioning the
substitution and the power of the
INEC to hold the supplementary
election.

He also requested that he should be
declared the winner of the election,
since the leading candidate had died.

But the court dismissed the case,
saying it lacked jurisdiction. The
Federal High Court Abuja further
stressed that issues relating to
election could only be adjudicated by
the Election Petition Tribunal.

The Kogi election is considered
historic, as it is the first election that
a party will substitute their
candidate in the middle of the
process.