I won’t surrender people’s mandate-- Faleke To Oyegun
THE
crisis created by the demise of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
candidate in Kogi State’s governorship election, Prince Abubakar Audu,
seems to be growing fast.
Audu’s running mate in the November 21 election, James Abiodun
Faleke, has declined to pair with Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who has been
named the party’s candidate for the supplementary election on Saturday,
insisting that he should be declared governor-el
ect on the APC platform.
The APC looked set to win the election but the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) declared it inconclusive, following the
inability of some registered voters to vote in 91 units.
In a letter to APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Faleke
dissociated himself from the supplementary poll, which he insisted was
unnecessary since the November 21 governorship election produced the
candidates of the APC as clear winners.
He said rather than substitute its late standard bearer at the
governorship election for the purpose of a supplementary election, the
party ought to have urged the electoral umpire to declare it the winner
of the poll since the expected results from the scheduled election would
be inconsequential.
In the 91 units, there are 49,000 registered would-be voters. Of the
lot, only 25,000 have voter cards. The APC is leading by 41,000 votes.
“Please take this letter as confirmation to dissociate myself from
the unusual and strange supplementary nomination of my humble self as
running mate to Alhaji Yahaya Bello, this also serves as a notice of
rejection of the purported and illegal nomination of myself as running
mate to Alhaji Yahaya Bello,” Faleke wrote in the letter to
Odigie-Oyegun.
He said it would amount to a betrayal of trust and injustice on the
part of the party to pick Bello who, according to him, joined forces
with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the APC during the
election, as the inheritor of all the late Audu and himself put into the
campaigns to ensure victory for the APC.
Besides, Faleke faulted the APC for attempting to shave his head
behind him, claiming that no one consulted him before his name was
forwarded as running mate to Bello.
The letter reads: “I wish to put it on record that I was neither
consulted by anybody before my name was submitted as running mate to a
man who has since the conduct of primaries, abandoned the party, took
the party to court, worked for the PDP, thereby causing our party to
lose his polling unit 80 votes to his ally party PDPs 116, repeating
same feat at the Ward level with APC scoring 1,146 to PDP’s 2,058.
“While it is true that the said Alhaji Yahaya Bello participated in
our party primaries, its trite that party primaries are conducted to
produce a candidate and once a candidate is produced, the congress,
being an ad-hoc tool for that purpose, should automatically extinguish.
“It is clear from this injustice, that our party is on the path of
rewarding disloyalty and discourage loyalty through this act of impunity
for which we all fought the PDP.
“It may also interest you Mr. Chairman Sir, that the said Yahaya
Bello, since the conduct of the primaries, had been aloof from party
activities as it is on record that he did not attend a single meeting or
campaign rally of the party.
“Mr. Chairman Sir, I am sure that it is neither in your interest, nor
that of the party in particular and the public in general to lord an
illegality on the people of Kogi State.
“Please, take note that I am not interested in surrendering the
mandate the people of Kogi State bestowed on the Audu/Faleke joint
ticket at the November 21 poll as I remain the governor-elect.
“I believe in the leadership of our great party to resolve this in
the shortest possible time, failure upon which I shall be forced to seek
redress in the court of law.”
In his latest letter, Faleke restated his position as contained in
two letters last Thursday from his cousel, Chief Wole Olanipekun to the
APC national chairman and the Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu.
In all the letters, Faleke mainted that the idea of a supplementary
election should not arise because the APC had already won the
governorship slot by polling 240, 867 to beat Governor Idris Wada of the
PDP who polled 199, 514.
He said there was no truth in the belief that the outstanding votes
could sway the poll’s results, adding that only 25,000 of the 49, 353
registered voters from 91 units from 18 council areas where the
supplementary election would take place have their Permanent Voter Cards
(PVCs), pointing out that the PDP would still be trailing the APC even
if it garners all the outstanding votes.
Faleke’s letter, titled: “Re:My purported nomination as deputy
governor,” reads: “Information at my disposal from the National
Secretary of our party, the All Progressives Congress and my telephone
conversation with your good self, confirmed to me that the party had
issued INEC form and submitted my name as running mate to Alhaji Yahaya
Bello in the forthcoming unusual and strange supplementary election
scheduled for 5th December, 2015, covering 91 polling units in Kogi
State to elect a “supplementary governor”.
“Mr. Chairman, you may recall that an election was conducted on the
21st November 2015, in which I was running mate to the late Prince
Abubakar Audu: I therefore remain fully committed to that joint ticket
which received the blessings of the party leadership, including your
good self, evident from your attendance at the campaign rallies to
ensure total victory for your great party through which the people of
Kogi State massively and overwhelmingly voted for us.
“Following the demise of my principal after the announcement of
results from the polling units, wards, local government areas and the
state, our party had highest number of votes of 240, 867 against PDP’s
199, 514, thus creating a difference of 41, 353 votes between the two
leading parties. On the strength of this, I hereby state clearly that I
remain the governor-elect of Kogi State on the platform of our great
party.”
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