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Tag: Faleke

  • Faleke: no regrets challenging INEC verdict

    Faleke: no regrets challenging INEC verdict

    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.

     

     

  • Faleke appeals Kogi tribunal’s verdict

    Faleke appeals Kogi tribunal’s verdict

    Former running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu in the last November 21 Kogi State governorship election, James Faleke, has urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to set aside the election tribunal’s verdict which upheld Yahaya Bello as governor.

    In the appeal based on 35 grounds, Faleke is challenging the tribunal’s decision, except the part of the preliminary objection resolved in his favour.

    He is praying for an order setting aside the judgment delivered on June 6, and an order granting all the reliefs sought in the petition.

    Through his lawyer Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Faleke said the tribunal erred in law by refusing to grant his reliefs, particularly an order directing him to be sworn in as governor for the reason that there was no declaration made after the election.

    He said: “One of the major reasons why the appellant instituted the petition at the lower tribunal was the failure of the first respondent (Independent National Electoral Commission) to make a declaration and return from the election of 21st November, 2015.

    “The lower tribunal failed to consider whether there was any constitutional justification for the failure of the first respondent to make a return from the election.

    “It failed to consider whether there was any constitutional basis for the declaration of the November 21, 2015 election as inconclusive. It merely based its decision in refusing the appellant’s claims on the failure of the first respondent to perform its statutory duty,” he said.

    The appellant further argued that the tribunal was wrong to hold that he does not have the locus standi to present the petition before it.

    Faleke said the reason given by INEC for declaring the election as inconclusive was that the margin of win between the joint ticket of Prince Abubakar Audu and appellant and the Wada/Awoniyi ticket, which was 41,353 votes, was less than the total number of registered voters in the 91 polling units were INEC decreed a supplementary election to hold.

     

     

  • Faleke leads dignitaries to Ogidi Day Festival

    Faleke leads dignitaries to Ogidi Day Festival

    Kogi State Governorship contender and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise Mr James Abiodun Faleke will lead dignitaries to this year’s Ogidi Day Festival in Ogidi-Ijumu.

    The festival will hold at the Community Hall Grounds, Agegbe, Ogidi in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State on June 18, at 10 am.

    Ahead of the festival, Faleke, who is billed to be the Chairman of the day, has embarked on the palliative repair of the 16 kilometre Kabba-Ogidi-Ayere Road.

    Also expected at the event are the former Deputy Chief of Staff in the Obasanjo Presidency, Prince Olusola Akanmode, Father of the Day; Otunba Gani Adams of the O’odua Peoples Congress; Chief Executive Officer, CIG Motors (Lagos), Ms Diana Chen; Managing Director, Thisday Newspapers (Lagos), Mr Eniola Bello, and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the Capital Market, Tajudeen Ayo Yusuf.

    The occasion, which marks the official presentation of the new yam, is also used by the community to raise funds for various development projects in the ancient community.

    The National Publicity Secretary of the Ogidi Development Union, organisers of the programme, Otunba Shuaib Ipinmisho, in a statement in Lokoja, said cultural troupes from Lagos, Edo, Ekiti and Osun States will join their local counterparts to thrill the audience at what he termed the nation’s biggest culture event in June.

    Prominent indigenes of the community and organisations deemed to have contributed to its development in the course of the year will be honoured with various awards, while the Ologidi of Ogidi, Oba Rabiu Oladimeji Sule, will also present honourary chieftaincy title to various dignitaries on the occasion.

    The yearly Ogidi Day Medical Outreach organised by the ODU and Ripples Foundation, a United Kingdom (UK) based charity, will be held to conduct tests and give free drugs to the people of the community.

    This year’s event will also feature a Youth Connect Night where the popular hip-hop artiste, 9nice, will entertain guests at an all night show and a mountain climbing expedition to the famous Oroke Oda, which offered refuge to the people of the community during the Nupe raids of the late 19th Century.

     

  • Don’t okay commissioner-nominees, Faleke group tells G-5

    Don’t okay commissioner-nominees, Faleke group tells G-5

    The Audu/Faleke Political Organisation has said any attempt by the G5 lawmakers to approve the list of would-be commissioners purportedly sent by Governor Yahaya Bello to the House of Assembly will be illegal.

    It said except the nominees are cleared by the House of Assembly, under the leadership of Momoh Jimoh Lawal, their appointment remained illegal.

    A statement by the Director of Media and Publicity, Duro Meseko warned that any attempt by the government to send the list to the G5 for clearance would amount to an exercise in futility, as the nominees would be deemed to have been illegally cleared.

    The statement reads: “The news came that Governor Yahaya Bello announced his Commissioner-nominees yesterday and forwarded same to the House of Assembly.

    “The question is, which House of Assembly? Is it the illegal G5 house led by Umar Imam or the legally-constituted G15 house recognised by the court, and led by Speaker Momoh Lawal?

    “Because as at today, the only Speaker recognised by the law is Momoh Lawal. Any other pretender to the office is manifestly illegal; his actions and inactions in office also remain illegal.”

    The statement warned of the consequences of disobedience to court order, saying it “portends grave danger to constitutional democracy and the rule of law”.

    The Audu/Faleke group also warned financial institutions dealing with the government to be wary of illegal transactions not backed by law.

    “For those banks, which have direct dealings with the state government, especially those warehousing the bailout funds like Zenith and Access banks, we would like them to look very well before they leap so as not to regret their official indiscretion when the transactions come under official review in future. A word, says the sage, is enough for the wise”.

    According to the group, “since the Bello administration admitted that it applied and processed the bailout funds by itself, where did the CBN get the approval to release the funds when commissioners had not been appointed?

    “Which Assembly gave the approval even when the Assembly was under lock and key? Yet, the CBN overlooked these official requirements and released the bailout, a loan that would be repaid from the commonwealth of the longsuffering Kogi people.

    “Let it be known to all that these bizzare illegalities would soon come under official scrutiny and those found to have breached the laws dealt with accordingly”, the statement added.

  • Faleke hails judgment against ‘G5 lawmakers’

    Faleke hails judgment against ‘G5 lawmakers’

    The running mate to the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 21, 2015 election in Kogi State, James Faleke, has hailed the decision of an Abuja Federal High Court to order the sacking of the factional ‘Speaker of the G5 lawmakers’, Umar Imam and his principal officers and the reinstatement of Momoh Jimoh Lawal and his principal officers.

    A statement on his behalf by the spokesman for his group, Duro Meseko, described the judgment as the triumph of the rule of law over impunity and rule of the jungle.

    Noting that the judiciary remains the last hope of the common man, Faleke said Kogi was already sliding towards anarchy, but the judgment had raised hopes of a saner and better state.

  • Faleke to Bello’s supporters: stop using my name to score points

    Faleke to Bello’s supporters: stop using my name to score points

    The running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu, the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) candidate in last November 21 governorship election in Kogi State, Mr. James Abiodun Faleke, has asked Governor Yahaya Bello’s supporters to stop using his name to score cheap political points.

    Faleke, who spoke through the Director of Media, Audu/Faleke Political Organisation, Mr. Duro Meseko, wondered why his name should be bandied about in the problem they created.

    He cautioned them not to overreach themselves in their search for the elusive ‘stomach infrastructure’.

    Faleke said: “For the umpteenth time, I’m constrained to respond to the hollow and ridiculous allegation by a negligible faction of ward and local government executives of the APC in Kogi State that James Faleke was behind the vote-of-no confidence passed in Alhaji Yahaya Bello by the state executive council (exco) of the party last week.

    “Given the present hunger ravaging our dear state, one is not surprised to see the upsurge of state-sponsored groups falling over themselves to give fake and ludicrous endorsements to an inept and drowning administration that has thrown civility to the winds in all facets of governance.

    “We reiterate once again that Faleke has no hand in the vote-of-no confidence passed in Yahaya Bello by more than 99 per cent of the exco. From what we know, the exco is peopled by patriotic men and women of integrity. Men who cannot be bought.

    “Given the parlous situation in Kogi where nothing seems to be working, the exco members have proved beyond doubt that they mean well for the development of the state and will not sell their conscience. The position of the exco is receiving reviews and commendations across the nation’s political space.

    “For the young men and women being lured with elements of ‘stomach infrastructure’ across the state to come to Lokoja and accuse Faleke of being behind Bello’s travails, we can only pity their ignorance, for had they known that it was their future that was being protected by men of goodwill across the state, they would have been more restrained and circumspect in allowing themselves to be misled.”

    A faction of the state APC executive yesterday accused Faleke of sponsoring the vote-of-no confidence in Governor Bello.

     

  • Kogi poll: Tribunal defers verdict in Faleke’s suit

    Kogi poll: Tribunal defers verdict in Faleke’s suit

    The Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has reserved judgment in a suit by James Faleke, the petitioner in the disputed Kogi State governorship election, against the declaration of Yahaya Bello as governor.

    The tribunal Chairman, Justice Halima Muhammad, at a sitting in Abuja, over the weekend, said the date would be communicated to parties.

    Bello was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following last December 5 supplementary election.

    Counsel to Faleke at the sitting Wole Olanipekun (SAN) asserted that INEC plotted a coup against the constitution by declaring Bello governor.

    He told the tribunal that his client was the rightful person for the governorship seat.

    “What INEC did in Kogi State on November 22, 2015, by substituting a stranger (Bello) for a substantive candidate (Faleke) in an election already concluded is a coup against the Constitution.”

    The senior lawyer cited sections 179(2) and 181(1) of the constitution to buttress his submission that for INEC to declare the election inconclusive was a coup against the constitution.

    Olanipekun said: “Section179 ( 2a & b ) states that ‘a candidate for an election to the Office of Governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected, where there being two or more candidates(a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and ( b ) he has not less than one quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two thirds of all the local government  areas of the states, while section 181(1) states that ‘if a person duly elected as governor dies before taking and subscribing to the oath of allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, the person elected with him as deputy governor shall be sworn in as governor and he shall nominate a new deputy governor, who shall be appointed by the governor with the approval of a simple majority of the House of Assembly of the state”.

    Olanipekun emphasised the supremacy of the constitution, saying: “My Lord, the spirit and letters of the constitution is self executory and like the rock of Gibraltar that cannot be moved. Indeed no single word in the constitution is a waste. So, INEC has no discretion with regards to sections 179 and 181 at all”.

    On whether the petitioner, Faleke has a locus standi to approach the tribunal, he submitted that the petitioner indeed was a candidate who has the locus in view of Section 187 of the constitution.

    He referred to the case of CPC vs INEC where the then President Umaru Yar’Adua and his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, were sued, adding that if Jonathan as vice president was not a candidate, he would not have been joined in the suit.

    He urged the tribunal to discountenance the argument of the respondents that votes in an election belonged to political parties and not candidates.

    Citing a Supreme Court ruling, the senior lawyer said: “Parties only sponsor candidates but candidates stand for elections.  The law has moved from the era of Amaechi (former Rivers State governor). We are now in a new testament”, he stated.

    He said: “I urged this tribunal to forget about the grammar being spoken by these respondents and face the fact that this petition has not been resisted by the 1st and 2nd respondents, INEC and Bello.

    “The petitioner has a locus standi.

    “I agree that this kind of issue has never happened before, but this is a coup set up by the 1st respondent.

    “This is also the first time in the history of democracy where someone will contest without a running mate.”

    The petitioner’s counsel also told the tribunal that the 2nd respondent, Bello, was not a registered voter in the state, which he said was against the  constitution.

    Alex Izinyon (SAN), counsel to INEC, urged the tribunal to dismiss Faleke’s petition for lacking in merit.

    According to Izinyon, the case of INEC was straightforward and that Section 33 of the Electoral Act brought in the 2nd respondent as governor by circumstances.

    He said one of the substances of the petitioner, which bothers on qualification, “does not even have any meaning when you look at the merit of the matter.

    “The petitioner doesn’t have the right to hinge on qualification being a member of the same party with the 2nd respondent; if an outsider is not saying this, why should he who happened to be in the same party with the respondent say it?

    “The other side where the petitioner said the 2nd respondent does not have deputy does not also make meaning.”

    Joseph Daudu (SAN), Bello’s counsel, told the tribunal that he was surprised that the party was not joined as co-respondent in the suit by the petitioner.

    Daudu told the tribunal that the votes cast during the November 21 election did not belong to the candidate, but to the party.

    He added: “This case is not in any jurisprudence of the Electoral Act because it is happening for the first time where the first runner died before the conclusion of the election.

    “This tribunal will be making history in given direction to the lacuna that has never happened before.

    “Section 188 cited by the petitioner would have come in place if the election has been declared in the first instance. Therefore, we urged the lordship to dismiss this petition for lacking in merit.”

     

  • Faleke: why Bello is clamping down on my supporters

    Faleke: why Bello is clamping down on my supporters

    House of Representatives member James Faleke (APC-Lagos) yesterday gave reasons why Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State was harassing his supporters.

    Faleke, who addressed reporters in Abuja, said party leaders from Ekirin-Ade community in Ijumu Local Government of Kogi State, were arrested because the indigenes shunned the re-inauguration of the health centre built and inaugurated in 2007.

    Faleke, who was deputy to the late Kogi governorship candidate, Abubakar Audu, during last November 21  election, said the health centre was repainted and inaugurated by the wife of the governor. But he said the indigenes refused to attend because they felt it was a fraud.

    The lawmaker, while condemning the midnight invasion and arrest at residences of Funso Olumoko and Cornelius Olowo, urged the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to stop the attacks on Okun communities and his followers by Governor Bello.

    His words:  “Two weeks ago, from my community – Ekirin Ade in Ijumu Local Government, I received a call that the wife of Alhaji Bello was coming to inaugurate a health centre there and the question everybody asked was if that was the health centre inaugurated in 2007. What has been done to that health centre to warrant the state apparatus to move to Ekirin Ade, about four to five hours drive, to inaugurate?

    “And we sent people to the health centre to find out whether it was demolished and rebuilt overnight. And we discovered that the doors that were provided during the construction were wooden doors and those doors, 11 of them, were changed to ‘flush doors’, not security doors.

    “The building was of course repainted. But to our surprise, the new administration set up an inauguration plaque, calling it a ‘modern health centre’, and the question was that what is modern in this health centre? No equipment, no doctors. To compound it, the community leaders have been funding the health centre.

    “Only for the wife of Alhaji Bello to say they want to re-inaugurate the health centre. So we saw that this is ‘fraud’ that must not be allowed. And the people say they are not coming. So they stayed back.

    “Surprisingly, the police, of course, induced by Alhaji Bello went to Olumoko’s house around 1 am, scaled the fence, broke the door, entered his room. They met his aged parents – father and mother, and they broke the ceiling, thinking maybe, he hid himself there.

    “They ransacked his wardrobe but he was not found. Thereafter, he was declared wanted.’’

    He expressed concern about attacks by Bello’s loyalists within Kogi State and the venue of the Election Tribunal  in Abuja.

    The lawmaker distanced himself from a group, called ‘Faleke Support Movement’, and urged those masquerading under the name to reveal themselves.

    He said: “At no time have we ever had a group, called Faleke support group, it does not exist and those claiming to know the Faleke Support Movement should identify them.

    “I believe the opposition in Kogi State are the ones coming out with a group that does not exist to tarnish our image. We are law abiding citizens, we go about peacefully and there’s no reason why we should take laws into our hands.”

     

  • What I seek from tribunal, by Faleke

    What I seek from tribunal, by Faleke

    A former deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last November 21 election in Kogi State, James Faleke, has sent a list of basic issues for the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, to determine.

    The politician filed his petition on the controversy surrounding the election and APC’s governorship candidates.

    Faleke was the running mate to Prince Abubakar Audu, who died shortly after casting his ballot.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the poll inconclusive and Alhaji Yahaya Bello was elected governor, following his nomination by APC’s leadership to replace the late Audu.

    Faleke faulted the move, refusing to become Bello’s deputy governorship candidate.

    The politician is among the petitioners urging the tribunal, which is rounding off its pre-hearing session, to determine the circumstances surrounding the election and the major candidates.

    In a petition he copied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the first respondent and Bello (second respondent), Faleke urged the tribunal to “determine whether, upon a careful reading and application of the clear provisions of sections 1(2), 179(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” among others, the INEC should have declared the election inconclusive instead of announcing Audu and Faleke the winners.

    Section 179 (2a and b) of the Constitution states as follows: “A candidate for an election to the office of governor of a state shall be deemed to have been elected where, there being two or more candidates -(a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas of the state.”

    But Section 187 (1) of the Constitution says: “In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this part of the chapter relate, a candidate for the office of the governor of a state shall not be deemed to have been validly nominated for such office unless he nominates another candidate as his associate for his running for the office of governor, who is to occupy the office of the deputy governor, and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of the deputy governor, if the candidate who nominated him is duly elected as governor in accordance with the said provisions.”

    Faleke urged the tribunal to also determine whether or not Section 181 (1) of the Constitution was not relevant to the Kogi scenario, where the candidate died after the election.

    The Section reads: “If a person duly elected as governor dies before taking and subscribing to Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, the person elected with him as deputy governor shall be sworn in as governor and he shall nominate a new deputy governor who shall be appointed by the governor with the approval of a simple majority of the House of Assembly of the state.”

    Faleke urged the tribunal to also determine whether or not by virtues of sections 1 (2), 179 (2) of the Constitution and sections 27, 69, and 75 of the Electoral Act 2011(as Amended), the results declared by INEC on November 22, last year, had not already produced a winner and that refusing to announce the winner by “declaring the said election inconclusive is not altogether unconstitutional and illegal”.

    He urged the tribunal to rely on Section 187 (1) of the Constitution to determine whether or not Bello was qualified to contest an election to the office of the governor of Kogi State on December 5, last year. The petition added: “Can the votes legitimately cast for the joint ticket of the late Prince Audu and the petitioner (Faleke) in the governorship election of November 21, 2015, be transferred to the second respondent (Bello)?”

    He also urged the tribunal to determine whether or not Bello “can constitutionally and statutorily assume office as governor of Kogi State pursuant to a supplementary election conducted in 91 polling units …on December 5, 2015”.

    Faleke urged the tribunal to determine whether or not INEC’s return of Bello as governor of Kogi State on or about December 5, last year, was not “altogether unconstitutional, illegal, null and void”.

    He said it was necessary for the tribunal to determine whether or not Bello, being an unregistered voter in Kogi State, was qualified to vote and be voted for and that notwithstanding the provisions of Section 187 (1) of the Constitution, he (Bello) was qualified to be declared winner of the December 5, last year’s election, even when he ran without a deputy.

    INEC announced that Prince Audu and Faleke got 241,000 votes in the November 21, 2015 governorship election in Kogi State, beating their closest rivals, Captain Idris Wada and Yomi Awoniyi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 199,000 votes.

  • Faleke accuses Bello of financial recklessness

    Faleke accuses Bello of financial recklessness

    The running mate of the late Prince Abubakar Audu in last November 21 election in Kogi State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. James Abiodun Faleke, has accused Governor Yahaya Bello of financial recklessness.

    Faleke, who addressed his supporters yesterday after the sitting of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, said besides the funds he met in the treasury after his swearing in, he received the January allocation and did not tar any road or pay salaries.

    He said: “My heart bleeds for my people because of the way Bello has been managing the resources of the state. When he came in, he met N2.5 billion in the treasury plus N700 million Ecological Fund. From these, he paid a month’s salary.

    “Then the January allocation of N2.6 billion came in and he collected a loan of N420 million from Zenith Bank.

    “The governor has squandered the allocation and the loan. He refused to pay salary, using staff screening as an excuse. He did not tar a kilometre of road from the over N3 billion. What has he done with the money?

    “Bello was so desperate to get the loan from Zenith Bank, after UBA refused, he moved the state accounts to Zenith Bank.

    To those who know him (Bello), please tell him we are watching and any act of corruption will be exposed.”

    Faleke said instead of facing governance, the governor had been concentrating on trivial issues, such as demolition of monuments, encouraging division in the House of Assembly, among others.

    He said the people would resist attempts to embezzle their commonwealth by any public officer, no matter how highly placed.