Last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared Alhaji Yahaya Bello of the APC as the Kogi State governor-elect after ascertaining that he won supplementary elections following the original polls. Prince Abubakar Audu, who was the APC's original flagbearer died of a stroke before Inec announced the winner and was replaced by Alhaji Bello with Hon Faleke retained as his running mate.
However, Hon Faleke, who was Prince Audu's running mate and was selected to be Alhaji Bello's deputy has refused to accept the position. According to Hon Faleke, he is the bonafide governor-elect of Kogi State and he has gone to court seeking to get himself declared so.
Hon Faleke has said he would not make himself available for swearing in alongside Alhaji Bello on January 27. Responding to the impasse, Chief Oyegun said that the APC will select another deputy governorship candidate should the need arise.
Chief Oyegun added: “On the Faleke issue, it is rather a straightforward and easy issue, we have replaced a governorship candidate. If the need arises and subject to what the law says, we will also get a deputy governorship candidate but we will cross those bridges as they arise as they have not arisen yet.
"As a political party, we simply understand the frustration that emanated from the death of Abubakar Audu but it is normal for us to accommodate the immediate reactions coming from the people involved. They were at the gate of victory but the gate was shut in their faces because of the unfortunate death of their mentor, Abubakar Audu, who would have been our governor in the state."
He added that a lot of things which normally would not have been accepted happened and the party has to accept them so long that everybody will simmer down as time passes. Chief Oyegun said that the party was not disturbed by the cases in court on the Kogi situation, stating that it was still evolving.
“Wielding the big stick in a situation like this might not be appropriate but there will be a timeline to it, enough will be enough at a certain time. In the next few weeks, depending on who goes to court or who doesn’t, we will know the boundaries of the law in respect of these issues.
“As at now we are very glad with the results that we have got and I’m very sure that they would be upheld virtually in every tribunal because we have adopted simple commonsense solution, legally defendable. We cross every bridge as we get to it and we’ll wait and see who does what and work out answers that meet each situation," Chief Oyegun added.
Comments
Post a Comment