Tribunal dashes Faleke’s hopes; Yahaya Bello is Governor of Kogi.
The hope of House of Representatives member, Mr. James Faleke, of giving life to his dream of becoming Kogi Governor, has been punctured by the State governorship election tribunal, sitting in Abuja.
Justice Halima Mohammed, the Chairman of the Tribunal declared on Monday that the fact that INEC declared the first election held on November 21, 2015 inconclusive meant no governor or deputy governor-elect had emerged.
According to her, the votes in an election belong to parties and not individuals. “It is the political party, through the instrumentality of its candidate that runs for election,” she stated.
Faleke was the deputy gubernatorial candidate to late Abubakar Audu, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and both men looked good to win when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive. Audu’s death was announced shortly after.
APC nominated Yahaya Bello after INEC called for a new candidate for fresh elections for December 5, 2015, to conclude the process.
The petition by former Governor, Captain Idris Wada, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still awaiting determination by the tribunal.