Court to Wada, Faleke: You can’t stop Kogi supplementary election

Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State and the running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu, James Faleke, were on Friday told by a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, that they did not have a mandate to stop the supplementary election holding in the North-Central state on Saturday.
All the five suits initiated to stop the exercise were struck out by Justice Gabriel Kolawole.
The judge also declared that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should go ahead with the election.
But immediately after the verdict, Faleke vowed to approach the Court of Appeal to seek redress.
Wada is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the election.
During the November 21 election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate was Audu with Faleke as his running mate.
Audu died on November 22, shortly before the election was declared inconclusive by INEC.
A few days later, APC leadership announced Yahaya Bello as Audu’s replacement and Faleke as the running mate.
But Faleke protested, vowing not to recognise Bello as the candidate. To him, since the APC was leading, he should be given the ticket.
In the five suits, Wada and Faleke urged the court to declare them winner respectively, following Audu’s death. Other plaintiffs in consolidated suits, Emmanuel Idakwo, John Jacob Usman and Hon. Raphael Igbokwe had, in their various suits, asked the court to compel the electoral body to conduct fresh election in the state.
Justice Kolawole said from the processes filed by the plaintiffs, there was no dispute that the November 21 election that held in the sate was substantially conducted and results being announced when Audu died.
He also said it was not in dispute that the deceased was leading by more than 41,000 votes.
He also held that there was no dispute in the fact that Wada scored second highest votes and Faleke was having a joint ticket with Audu and were coasting home to victory.
From the undisputed facts, he held that the election had been substantially conducted by INEC and that by that, the only appropriate place for aggrieved contestants in that election is the State Governorship Election Tribunal to ventilate their anger.
He said it would amount to an exercise in futility for the court to go into the merits of the matter when the undisputed facts supplied to the court through the processes filed have proved beyond doubt that the suit was a post-primary election which can only be adjudicated upon by a tribunal that will be set up by the Appeal Court President in line with Section 182 of the Constitution.
He said: “Let me state here that the hands of the court are not tired but that the court cannot go into the merits of the five suits because of the glaring facts that this court has no jurisdiction.
“ I am not in doubt that all issues raised by the plaintiffs can be investigated and determined by the election petition tribunal. My own is not to declare the entire election or the inconclusive election null and void; these are the cases that the tribunal can consider. I hereby decline jurisdiction to grant all the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs,” he said.
Kolawole also struck out another suit filed by Faleke to challenge the nomination of Bello as Audu`s replacement by the APC for Saturday’s supplementary election.
Justice Kolawole said that such a case could be heard and determined by the election petitions tribunal when constituted by the President of the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, Faleke said he would appeal against the judgement.
Faleke said in a statement in Lokoja on Friday that he would take the matter to the Appeal Court to get the mandate rightly given to him by the electorate in the state.
In the statement, Faleke described himself as a marathon runner, saying that the judgement fell short of expectation.
He appealed for calm among APC members and his supporters in the state, saying that the battle to get justice just begun.
He also condemned the attack on INEC office in Dekina Local Government Area, by yet to be identified hoodlums, describing it as barbaric and a desperate move to subvert the wishes of the people.