BREAKING: Faleke sues INEC,Asks Court To Declare Him Gov-Elect

The deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in
the November 21 election in Kogi State, James Faleke, on Tuesday filed
a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, demanding his declaration as
governor-elect.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the
election inconclusive. It ordered a supplementary election which will
hold on December 5.
Mr. Faleke had on Monday threatened to go to court following the
adoption of Yahaya Bello by the APC national leadership as the
governorship candidate of the party in the supplementary election.
He also wrote INEC demanding the removal of his name as the
running mate to Mr. Bello in the supplementary election.
Mr. Bello’s adoption at the meeting of the National Working
Committee of the party followed the death of the former governorship
candidate, Abubakar Audu, on November 22.
The party immediately forwarded his name to INEC as replacement
for Mr. Audu and that of Mr. Faleke as his running mate.
In the suit filed by his counsel, Wole Olanipekun, Mr. Faleke, a
serving member of the House of Representatives, said contrary to the
claim by the electoral body, the election was conclusive and that as
the running mate to Mr. Audu, he should be declared winner.
The court papers were served on INEC Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Faleke
said.
The deputy governorship candidate had written INEC on November
26, insisting that he was the governor-elect following Mr. Audu’s
death.
He asked the Commission not to go ahead with the supplementary
election.
“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,” Mr. Faleke
wrote through Mr. Olanipekun.
“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.”
In another letter to APC Chairman, John Oyegun, Mr. Faleke urged his
party to distance itself from the “Greek Gift” being offered to it to
nominate a new candidate for a planned supplementary election in 91
polling units.
He said the election had already been won and lost, and that the party
should rather support him in actualizing the mandate already given to
APC and its candidates.
According to the result declared by INEC, Mr. Audu had the highest
number of votes thus leading the 21 other candidates, including the
incumbent governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, who was the flagbearer
of the Peoples Democratic Party.