TELL Magazine

The leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC may have met the deadline given it by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to submit a replacement for Audu Abubakar, the late candidate of the party at the governorship election held in the state on November 21, the crisis occasioned by the death of the politician barely 24 hours after the voting was to have been concluded remains unresolved.

This is because James Faleke, erstwhile running mate to the late candidate is insisting that the electoral umpire erred by declaring the election inconclusive when the APC ticket, of which he was then number two, had won. Wole Olanipekun, senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN, who is his lawyer had argued in separate letters to INEC and John Odigie Oyegun, national chairman of APC that the extent to which the election had gone indicate that his team had won, and that since fate caused Abubakar to die the day after the election, he being the running mate should be declared the winner of the election.

Faleke has therefore, in a letter to Oyegun declined his nomination as running mate to Yahaya Bello, who came second at the party primaries, which produced the late Abubakar.

But Faleke’s argument is that aside from the fact that it was wrong for the party to substitute candidate after election, the new candidate had left the party in annoyance after the primary and did not participate in the electioneering campaigns. He believes that if Bello eventually runs away with the victory of the party, it would amount to reaping where he did not sow. So rather than accept the offer for deputy governorship candidate under Bello, Faleke chose Mohammed Audu as running mate, insisting that the young man was better filling the slot on the ticket that his father led in the first instance.

Meanwhile, governor Idris Wada, who flew the flag of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the election has gone to court, asking to be declared winner of the poll since APC’s candidate had died.