A new twist has been added to the controversy surrounding the Kogi governorship election following the death of the APC candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu.
The running mate to the late Audu, Mr James Faleke, has formally asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to declare him winner of the election and name him governor-elect.
Mr Faleke set his claim on the governorship in two letters to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the APC on the fact that he had become governor-elect in the face of what he described as the unfortunate death of Audu.
Counsel to Faleke, Wale Olanipekun stated in the letter to INEC, “In law and logic, no new candidate can inherit or be a beneficiary of the votes already cast, counted and declared by INEC before that candidate was nominated and purportedly sponsored.
“Assuming without conceding that INEC is even right to order a supplementary election, the votes already cast, counted and declared on Saturday, 25th November 2015, were votes for the joint constitutional ticket of Prince Abubakar Audu and our client.
“Therefore, no new or ‘supplementary’ candidate can hijack, aggregate, appropriate or inherit the said votes.”
Faleke therefore cautioned his party not to fall into a trap set for it by INEC to field another candidate or go into a supplementary election.
