Running mate to the late All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in last year’s Kogi State governorship election, Mr James Abiodun Faleke, said yesterday he had no regrets challenging the verdict.
In a statement after the Supreme Court judgment, Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives, said: “I have no regrets challenging the declaration of the November 21 last year’s governorship election in Kogi State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Faleke contested with the late Prince Abubakar Audu who died before the final results were released. INEC declared the poll inconclusive and ordered a supplementary election.
The statement by the spokesperson of the Audu/Faleke Campaign Organisation Mr. Duro Meseko, quoted Faleke as saying that it would amount to a betrayal of the people’s sacred trust if he had not challenged the INEC verdict.
According to him, the people of Kogi State, who reposed implicit confidence in the Audu/Faleke ticket, would have been betrayed if he had not defended the sanctity of their votes up to the apex court.
The statement said: “We have heard the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court jurists upholding Yahaya Bello as governor. We shall wait for the full text of the judgment to know why they came to that conclusion.
“But let it be stated here that we have no regrets challenging the declaration of our election as inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“What we did was to defend the votes cast for Audu/Faleke by the over 240,000 electorates on November 21, 2015. The people voted for us as candidates not APC because they believe in the kind of leadership we offer to provide for them during our campaigns. It would therefore amount to crass betrayal of the trust of the electorate not to have defended their votes till the end.”
Faleke said as a lawmaker, he would be glad to read details of the judgment so as to “know which areas of our nation’s jurisprudence require urgent review”.
He urged all his supporters to remain calm, peaceful and law abiding while thanking them for their support and perseverance all through the court proceedings.