Opinion: Will Kogi Political Dust Ever Settle?, By Itodo Daniel Sule

Barely a week to the inauguration of a new government in Kogi State, the political dust raised by the sudden death of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu in the November 21, 2015 election, is yet to settle.

Audu who died on November 22, a day after the election, had polled 240,867 votes ahead of his main opponent, Governor Idris Wada, who had 199,514 votes. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive and ordered a supplementary poll.

INEC’s State Returning Officer for the election, Prof Emmanuel Kucha had declined to make returns after collation of results based on issues bordering on the margin of win between Audu and Wada which was 41,353 votes. Audu’s death unarguably heated up the state’s political atmosphere as a battle ensued on who should replace him. After much consultations and horse-trading, the APC finally settled for Alhaji Yahaya Bello who happened to be the first runner-up to the late Audu in the party’s primary. Bello had polled 703 votes in the keenly contested primary to emerge second after the late former governor who garnered 1,109 votes. After the December 5, 2015 supplementary election INEC declared Bello as the Kogi governor-elect. But his choice of Bello has since been generating dust. Audu’s running mate, James Abiodun Faleke, had gone to the election petition tribunal sitting in Lokoja to challenge INEC for not declaring him winner of the election. Faleke had maintained that the November 21 governorship poll had already been won by the APC on the joint ticket of Audu/Faleke and that INEC erred by declaring the election inconclusive. He said he would not be available to be sworn-in as the deputy to Bello on January 27, insisting on the joint ticket. In the same vein, the PDP candidate and outgoing governor, Capt. Idris Wada, has also approached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of Bello as governor-elect. Other parties challenging the choice of Bello at the tribunal include the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) and African Democratic Congress (ADC). The election tribunal sitting in Lokoja granted six ex-parte motions to all petitioners seeking its leave to grant order of relief to serve the governor-elect through substituted means due to the inability of court bailiffs to serve him. The tribunal’s chairman, Justice Halima S. Mohammed, who granted the motions, said the governor-elect be served by substituted means before the start of hearing of the substantive suits on January 21. The tribunal also granted the ex-parte motion filed by the leading counsel to Governor Wada, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) to inspect all the materials used for the election that are in INEC’s custody. Another twist is the recent invitation and grilling of Faleke and late Audu’s eldest son, Mohammed, by the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja. Although the DSS have not made public the reasons for their invitation, sources said it might not be unconnected with the ensuing political impasse in the state ahead of the January 27 inauguration. Faleke’s media aide, Mr. Duro Maseko, said no amount of intimidation would make his principal back down on his quest to reclaim his mandate. An APC chieftain in Kogi East, Alhaji Ibrahim Linko Ocheje, faulted the arrests, saying they were only being made heroes, stressing that despite all odds, Faleke remains the only beacon of hope for the Igala. “No Faleke, no Igalas as far as this political dispensation is concerned,” he stressed. “Faleke has nothing to lose because the late Audu gave him the deputy gubernatorial candidate position and after the demise of Audu the party equally retained that slot for him,” he explained. “If Faleke had been gullible to take the offer to be deputy to Yahaya Bello, the Igala nation would have been silenced forever.” He said the issue would have become Okun/Ebira agenda because the Igala would not have been mentioned among the first four positions in the state. Ocheje said he was not in any way against Bello but that things should be done properly, adding that the most important concern was the defeat of the PDP-led government which he said the party had already succeeded in doing. Meanwhile, governor-elect, Bello, has denied any links to the arrest of Faleke and the late Audu’s son by the DSS. He said in a statement signed by Jude Salau of his media office that he had at no point sent any petition to the DSS against them. “The allegation that I sent a petition to the DSS is an absolute falsehood and nothing can be farther from the truth. I did not send any petition to the security department to invite Hon Faleke”, the statement said. Daily Trust learnt that the reconciliation moves reportedly made by Bello towards wooing Faleke and Audu’s political family to his camp appear not to be yielding the expected results at the moment. Although, some people in the Audu/Faleke camp are said to have aligned themselves with Bello, observers say the ‘who is who’ in the group are yet to come to terms with the governor-elect. Chief Strategist of the Alhaji Yahaya Bello Campaign Organisation, Mr. Edward Onoja, said reconciliation was in progress and the many were buying into it. He said the choice of Bello was the only option available to the party in that circumstance and advised all aggrieved parties to eschew bitterness, maintaining that the governor-elect’s emergence was divinely inspired. “The process of electioneering to produce any leadership position anywhere in the world has laid down procedures and rules that have legal backing. Yes, sentiments may set in but decisions are not taken based on sentiments and emotions,” he noted. “We all know our leader who is the father of Kogi politics and pioneer governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu passed on but the process has to continue. Having consulted widely, the party leadership resorted to the best legal position,” Onoja added. “Look at legal issues that are even current, especially the one in Taraba where a clear winner in an election may lose his seat because he didn’t go through the process or didn’t emerge through the party’s primaries as laid down by the Electoral Act. Sentiments abound that Audu is dead, his son should take his position but unfortunately, it is not a monarchy, it is democracy,” he explained. “His son did not participate in the primaries. Another sentiment was that Audu was on a joint ticket with his running mate and as such Faleke should automatically be made flag bearer of the party. Unfortunately, the same running mate never participated in the party’s primaries. So, there are sentiments but you wouldn’t allow sentiments to make you lose your hard earned victory at the polls”, Onoja maintained. From all indications, it appears the dust in Kogi’s political arena will take some weeks or even months to settle.