Judiciary must intervene
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the Kogi State
election debacle as a show of shame by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and the President Mohammadu Buhari-led
administration, warning that “INEC must be mindful of the consequences
of perpetrating the same electoral abracabra in Bayelsa State.”
The governor said; “If INEC could mess up its first assignment under
President Buhari’s kinsman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Nigerians should get
prepared for manipulated electoral processes.”
He called on the judiciary to be bold enough to provide the necessary
intervention on the Kogi stalemated election, saying instead of
turning itself into the court, INEC ought to have approached the
Supreme Court for proper interpretation on the relevant laws since the
Kogi scenario was not captured in the 1999 Constitution (as amended)
and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New
Media, Lere Olayinka, who spoke on behalf of the governor, in a
release issued on Wednesday, said “INEC has created total confusion in
Kogi State with the All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy
Governorship candidate, Hon James Faleke, Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Governor Idris Wada, governorship candidate of the People for
Democratic Change (PDC), Hon. Emmanuel Daikwo and two others now in
court, challenging the supplementary election scheduled for Saturday.
“APC on its part has presented Yahaya Bello as late Abubakar Audu’s
replacement. But Faleke, who should be his running mate, has written
to INEC to withdraw his name as Deputy Governorship candidate, and
INEC has not told Nigerians how APC will field governorship candidate
without a running mate.
Or has INEC also waved the Electoral Act requirement for a
governorship candidate to be nominated with a deputy just because it is the APC that is involved?”, he said.
The governor said President Buhari was setting Nigeria on the path of
anarchy by using the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and
Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who is a member of APC to
perpetrate constitutional fraud by imposing an illegal decision on
INEC.
He said; “INEC must tell Nigerians what it would have done if it was
the candidate of any of the 41 political parties (apart from APC) that participated in the election that died while the election was ongoing.
Would INEC have resorted to the illegal amendment of the Constitution
as it did to protect the interest of the APC or simply go ahead and
delete the dead candidate and announce the winner based on votes
scored by the remaining candidates?”
Speaking further, Governor Fayose noted that “PDP ruled for 16 years,
Nigeria was not thrown into this kind of electoral mess and
confusion. This to me is a real fraud and a clear indication that
President Buhari will not lead this country to anywhere but confusion.
“I imagine if Dr Goodluck Jonathan had acted this way, will Nigeria be
where it is now? Wouldn’t democracy have been scuttled?
“Painfully, many honourable people that supposed to talk have kept
quiet, seeming to be enjoying the macabre dance of INEC and President
Buhari.”
