…demands Wada be declared elected
. APC leaders adopt Audu’s son as guber candidate
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday dragged the Federal Government, All Progressives Congress, APC, and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court over plan to substitute the candidacy of late Abubakar Audu in the inconclusive gubernatorial election in Kogi State.
Rising from an emergency National Caucus meeting in Abuja, the party also demanded that INEC returns the incumbent governor, Capt. Idris Wada as winner of the November 21st gubernatorial election, as the APC candidate, who was leading in the inconclusive election died during the process.
The party also said the proposed supplementary election would no longer be necessary as APC is not backed by either the constitution or electoral laws to substitute its candidate within the election period.
The resolutions of the caucus are that it: “Completely rejects the decision of INEC in yielding to the unlawful prompting of a clearly partisan Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mallam Abubakar Malami, to allow APC to substitute a candidate in the middle of an election, even when such has no place in the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
“Insists that with the death of its candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has legally crashed out of the governorship race as no known law or constitutional provision allows the substituting of candidates, once the ballot process has commenced.
“Insists that with the unfortunate death of Prince Abubakar Audu, APC has no valid candidate in the election, leaving INEC with no other lawful option than to declare the PDP candidate, Capt. Idris Wada as the winner of the election.
“Notes that the combine reading of the provisions of the constitution and Electoral Act does not in any war whatsoever support the substitution of candidates for election in the middle of the ballot process.”
PDP also noted that if APC is allowed to substitute its original candidate, then the party would have fielded two separate candidates in the same election, a scenario that is completely alien to the electoral laws and to any known democratic norms and practice world-over.
“Caucus observes that APC, fully aware that it has no case before the law is now orchestrating confusion in the polity with a view to diverting attention from its glaring incompetence and failure of governance.
“Observes that the leadership of INEC as presently constituted under the chairmanship of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has demonstrated that it is incapable of neutrality and as such cannot be vested with the conduct of the Kogi governorship supplementary election as well as the December 5, 2015 Bayelsa governorship election.
“As a result, caucus demands the immediate resignation of the chairman and all national commissioners of INEC to pave the way for a new nonpartisan commission to conduct the forth-coming elections,” it added.
The caucus also reiterated its demand for the resignation of the Attorney General for deliberately misleading INEC into arriving at the unconstitutional decision of allowing APC to substitute its candidate in the inconclusive election.
It notes that in order to save the nation’s democracy from imminent collapse, the party, as a critical stakeholder will immediately challenge the unlawful and unconstitutional decision by INEC in the court.
“Caucus also alerts that the AGF, INEC and APC are creating a scenario where a loser in a primary will patiently wait for the winning candidate to finish election and then have him either poisoned or assassinated before the final collation of results,” it added.
It called on the international community to prevail on the APC government to stop what it called ceaseless assault on the country’s democracy. National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, who later briefed the press warned against any emotional or partisan interpretation of the Kogi situation.
He said though PDP sympathises with APC over the death of its candidate but the position presently is that APC has no candidate and as such, has lost all its rights within the law for any kind of substitution. He further described the supplementary election a waste of time and money.
“APC has crashed out of the contest regrettably and the gap between PDP and the nearest party, the Labour Party is so wide that supplementary election would no longer be required. “In a relay race, once your baton drops, you can no longer pick it up and continue the race.
The matter before us is even beyond INEC, it is no longer in the hands of INEC. We have gone to court to do a simple interpretation of the laws of our land,” he added.
Meanwhile, APC critical stakeholders and delegates from Kogi East Senatorial district have resolved that Mohammed, the son of the late Audu would be presented as candidate if the party goes for fresh primary.
This was contained in a communiqué read by Kogi East zonal chairman, Daniel Isah, at the party’s secretariat in Lokoja yesterday. He said supporters of APC from the zone have decided to nominate Mohammed to replace is father.
They commended INEC and APC leaders at both state and national levels for allowing the substitution of Audu. They expressed the hope that the request of the zone would be granted in the interest of peace, justice and fairness.
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