Armed security operatives especially mobile policemen have cordoned off the collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) located in the headquarters of Yenagoa Local Government Area.
The dual carriageway leading to the centre was blocked from both sides with patrol vans. There were indications that final collation of results for the Saturday governorship election would soon begin.
The Governor of Bayelsa State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, Sunday morning, reportedly forced his way into the collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Onopa, Yenagoa LGA.
The Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organisation (SICO) said Dickon stormed the place at about 11pm Saturday night and threatened to ‘deal seriously’ with agents of the APC, Chief Werinipre Seibarugu, former Deputy Governor and Mr. Fortune Panebi, State Publicity Secretary of the APC.
SICO’s Director, Media and Publicity, Chief Nathan Egba said the action of Dickson was clearly against the electoral law as he had no authority as a candidate to go to the Yenagoa Collation Centre especially as he was not from the LGA.
He alleged that the governor, who threatened to deal with the two APC agents, was at the collation centre to manipulate results being collated from different wards in Yenagoa.
He said: “The APC agents were said to have countered the moves by the PDP to manipulate the results that had been turned-in before some aides to the Governor alerted him of the developments at the Yenagoa Collation centre.
“The APC decided to raise the alarm and place the information in the public domain as the Governor’s desperation in the face of imminent defeat is such that he is ready all electoral laws”, he said.
He said fresh reports further indicated that the governor early morning in Sunday led a large delegation to Oporoma, headquarters of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, to protest against the rescheduled election.
He said: “Governor Dickson is from Sagbama Local Government Area and has no basis going to monitor conduct of an election in another Local Government Area on an election day in line with the electoral guidelines.
“This is clearly an act of desperation by the Governor, who is the candidate of the PDP in the election.
“Dickson, in company of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson, who is from the LGA reportedly met with INEC officials on the ground and told them not to go ahead with the poll.
“The INEC officials had reportedly told the Governor, he had no powers to stop the election.
“Governor Dickson was the chief sponsor of violent attacks in most of the communities.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alh. Yahaya Bello as the winner of the Kogi governorship election.
INEC announced that APC polled 247,752 votes to defeat PDP who came second with 204,877 votes.
The PDP candidate, Wada lost in his LGA in the supplementary poll.
As this column was being written, Kogi State was heading to 91 polling units in 18 local government areas to vote in the December 5 controversial supplementary election ordered by a vacillating Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The electoral body had declared the November 21 governorship poll inconclusive on the grounds that the registered voters in the disputed polling units exceeded the difference between the ballots cast for former All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Abubakar Audu, and Idris Wada, governor and Peoples Democratic Party candidate. INEC ignored the more definitive statistics that the permanent voter cards collected in all those units were less than 38,000, implying that there was no arithmetical miracle by which the APC could have lost the election. Sources in INEC, however, indicate that in declaring the election inconclusive, the electoral body was simply fulfilling the letter of the law.
No one will, however, dispute the fact that INEC fostered the stalemate and opened the doors to the controversy ravaging Kogi State. Why they did it, and whether they were externally influenced by those dead set against both Prince Audu and Hon Faleke for political and religious reasons will be hard to say at the moment. There are only indications that INEC was not surefooted, and that it appeared to have surrendered its independence to certain elements, including the Attorney General. If INEC behaved most uninspiringly, the presidency, which behaved most depressingly conspiratorial, is even worse. The presidency’s cavalier attitude towards the poll gives plenty of room to suspect its motives, especially the mala fide manner it distanced itself from the candidates and the poll. The first impression created was that the APC candidate, Prince Audu, was tainted, and as the PDP suggested and campaigned, it would be counterproductive for the president to identify with him. But not only was the corruption case yet to be proved, even the president himself was tainted with religious and ethnic fanaticism; yet a majority of Nigerians ignored the campaign and rallied to his side.
Closely leashed to this is the presidency’s appalling misconception of party politics and supremacy. Even in the best of times, the Buhari presidency never quite showed a grasp of what a party is and what it stands for. Now, with the contempt demonstrated by the president for the Prince Audu ticket, it was not surprising that he declined to campaign for him before he died. The APC on the whole did not even mourn their standard-bearer in the truest sense of mourning. Not only were they eager to move on, they were joyous in betraying the Audu/Faleke ticket and rubbishing it on flimsy grounds. Some analysts have however accused the party of being influenced by religious and ethnic considerations, inadvertently corroborating the longtime argument of politicians like Femi Fani-Kayode who suggested that the party had an underlining religious and ethnic agenda.
The betrayal has also permeated, for now, two of the state’s senatorial districts. Kogi Central, constituted mostly by the Ebira, and from among whom the APC picked Yahaya Bello as the substitute for Prince Audu, has ignored the cause of justice and rallied enthusiastically to the side of their son. Justice be damned, they seem to say; after all, they were not the ones who inspired the initial unjust manoeuvre by INEC, nor were they the ones who pushed a deliberately malevolent APC to rubbish the Audu/Faleke ticket, nor still were they the people who turned the president against the APC’s democratically chosen ticket for the November 21 poll. As far as they were concerned, they had no reason not to profit from the massive betrayal of the APC ticket and the wholesale repudiation of political ethics mindlessly engineered by certain APC bigwigs.
Kogi West, Abiodun Faleke’s senatorial district, is also believed to be desperately asking their son to take the consolatory position of running mate in the APC ticket so that they would have something to show for their efforts. It does not apparently matter to them that they would be forsaking the principles and the cause of justice they have been known to fight for over the decades. Their elders unwisely fought for and embraced the idea of Kogi State only to end up holding the short end of the stick. Now, their children are on the edge of repudiating the values their great ancestors fought for, their fortitude in the face of injustice and unfairness over the centuries, and the great and ennobling achievements they made as a people in the fields of culture, education, politics and even religion. It is expected that Mr Faleke will stand pat, even if he remains the last man standing, and that he will be prepared to lose the governorship seat rather than abjure the values and principles he has campaigned for, even if everyone around him, including his party, surrenders to infamy. He will not be part of the immorality of transferring the Audu/Faleke victory to the party’s favoured interloper.
It is not clear how Kogi East, where Prince Audu hailed from, would have responded had the entire process been voided and fresh primaries ordered, especially considering how they had over the years resisted power shift. But for now, having apparently lost to their bitterest rival, the Ebira, and are about losing everything except the courts say otherwise, it is expected they will stay the course and stick to the Faleke inheritance.
The most important lesson in the serial betrayal gnawing at the liver of Kogi State is that the APC was never really a party, and that whatever pretence it still has to being called one is only to the extent that a few people in the party, having hijacked the levers of party power, are now striving to foist certain primordial and parochial agenda on the rest. Intertwined with this is the fact that Nigeria is in crying need of true leaders, men and women who are neither beholden to religion, ethnic agenda or private and short-term political goals; men and women who take the long, expansive, larger and visionary view of politics and country; men and women who have a passion to break down the walls that divide Nigerians and forge a common purpose for the country; men and women who despite their own losses and disadvantaged positions would fight for justice whatever the cost, in the understanding that in the long run the society is hurt when leaders pursue or disguise private interests under national, altruistic interest.
It is also dismaying that while the Kogi APC candidature controversy raged, the only voices heard were social and public commentators and legal experts, nearly all of whom have argued from the general lacunae in the electoral law and the constitution. There was not one statesman from the North or South heard. It was as if the disingenuously aloof and silent President Buhari was the country’s only surviving and senior statesman. No statesman reminded the country of the consequences of past injustice, and no one warns of present injustice. There was no moral voice, no voice of caution, no warning against the creeping ethnocentrism and sectarianism of some powerful APC leaders who have taken a position that negates the cause of justice and endangers the future of the ruling party. If care is not taken, the betrayal of Kogi may yet be the archetype of Nigerian politics, a symbol of what is to come, as the country falls deeper into the clutches of ruthless mafias.
Voting in the Saturday Kogi governorship supplementary election is in progress in most affected polling units in Ankpa, Olamaboro and Igalamela/Odolu local government areas.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in Ankpa, voting commenced at Ankpa Ward 2, Unit 001 in Ajobe and RCM primary school polling units and other six affected units at 1:30 p.m. as scheduled.
Also in the four affected polling units in Olamaboro Local Government Area, voting commenced at about 1:30 p.m. with security agents at alert and voting going on smoothly.
At Ajaka Ward 1, Unit 001, as well as Oforachi Ward 1, Unit 001 in Igalamela/Odolu Local Government Area, voting also commenced on time.
However, voting did not start as at 2:00 p.m. when NAN visited the Emere Junction polling unit, the ninth affected unit in Ankpa Local Government where 129 out of 599 registered voters were accredited.
Abel Akowe, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agent at the polling unit, frowned at the delay in commencement of voting.
Akowe alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was planning to manipulate the process in its favour.
He, therefore, called on security agents at the polling unit to be vigilant to forestall manipulations.
According to him, this will avoid a repeat of the crisis that led to the cancellation of results of the unit during the Nov. 21 election.
Mr Salisu Adejoh, the APC agent at the unit, said there was no problem, adding that the Presiding Officer and his team were taking their time to ensure everything went on smoothly.
Adejoh denied allegations of plans by his party to engage in any form of malpractice.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officer in Southern Ijaw Local government area has announced cancellation of election in the area.
Accreditation commenced at 8am in Angwa polling unit, Ankpa Local Govt Area, with large turnout of voters recorded.
In Bagana polling unit, in Omala LGA, turnout of voters was also impressive.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the electorate to come out and perform their civic responsibility
Speaking in Lokoja, the state capital, Yahaya Bello urged voters to conduct themselves in peaceful manner.
•Dismisses Wada’s, Faleke’s, others’ suits •Supporters return home dejected
Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja yesterday declined jurisdiction over the five suits filed in relation to the dispute arising from the inconclusive governorship election in Kogi State.
The judge, in two judgments he delivered, dismissed the suits by the state governor, Idris Wada and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the running mate to Abubakar Audu, the deceased governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), James Faleke, and three others, on the ground that his court lacked the jurisdiction to determine the issues raised.
Justice Kolawole said the issues raised were election related and had crossed the “threshold” of matters on which the court could exercise jurisdiction because the election results in most of the polling units had been declared.
He added that the suits qualified as a post-election dispute that could only be entertained by the election petition tribunal which would be set up by the President of the Court of Appeal in line with section285(2) of the Constitution.
The judge said he refrained from looking at the merit of the cases to enable parties re-argued the issues involved at the election petition tribunal.
By implication, the supplementary election scheduled for the state tomorrow, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is unhindered, because the suits had, among others, sought to restrain INEC from proceeding with the supplementary election.
The first was on four consolidated suits filed by Wada, Emanuel Daiko, who claimed to have contested the election as a candidate of the People for Democratic Change (PDC); Raphael Igbokwe (a PDP member of the House of Representatives from Imo State) and Stephen Wada Omaye and a Johnson Jacob Usman (who claimed to be an indigene of the state, a registered voter and a lawyer.
The second judgment was on the suit by Faleke. Wada had, in the main, urged the court to compel INEC to declare him winner of the election, on the ground that he is the only surviving candidate in the election who scored the second highest votes after the deceased candidate of the APC.
Faleke, on his part, faulted the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the election inconclusive; asked the court to among others compel INEC to declare his joint ticket with the late Abubakar Audu winner of the election and to restrain it (INEC) from proceeding with its planned supplementary election.
In dismissing the suits, the judge upheld arguments by lawyers to INEC (first defendant) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (second defendant), Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) and T. A Gazali, to the effect that the court was without the requisite jurisdiction to determine the cases, which border on the outcome of an election already held.
It was also their argument that it was within the INEC’s powers to conduct the supplementary election.
The judge held that all the suits, being similar except in their “styles of presentation”, were rooted in events which had crossed “the threshold mark” of cases which the Federal High Court could accommodate under its jurisdiction specified under section 87(10) of the Electoral Act.
“By this, the event of the election held on November 21, 2015 was not within the contemplation of the said provision and because substantial results were already released and announced, the electoral process, in my view, has crossed the threshold mark of an event in which only the governorship election tribunal as will be constituted by the President of the Court of Appeal pursuant to section 285(2) of the Constitution can entertain,” Justice Kolawole said.
He added that since his court lacked the power to grant the prayers sought by the plaintiffs, it would amount to “idle judicial indulgence” for it to go ahead to evoke its interpretative jurisdiction of the law under section 251 (1)(ii) of the Constitution.
The judge further held that his judgment did not affirm the validity or correctness of INEC’s decision to declare the November 21 election inconclusive and to hold a supplementary election.
He said issues raised in the suits, having not been decided on its merit, could be re-argued at the election petition tribunal after the conclusion of the election and the winner declared by INEC.
“The interpretation of the provision of the Constitution cannot be an exercise the court will entertain in vacuum but must relate to a controversy which the provision of the Constitution are to be interpreted are meant to resolve and or determine
“When I pondered over and over each of the reliefs being sought, even in the broad sense into which they have been compartmentalised, the conclusion which I have reached is not that I have, by any stretch of the construction of any of the provisions of the laws cited by counsel, affirmed the correctness of the decision of the first defendant (INEC) to declare the election held on November 21, 2015 as inconclusive and or to affirm the validity of the supplementary election that is scheduled for December 5, 2015.
“These are legitimate issues which this court would be entitled to resolve were it that I have jurisdiction to grant the reliefs, perhaps the principal reliefs being sought in all of the four suits which were tagged as consolidated suits on December 3, 2015.
“To proceed to affirm or otherwise the first defendant’s decision by which the election was declared inconclusive and to hold the supplementary election will be nothing short of exercising jurisdiction which I don’t seem to have. The jurisdiction which this court has exercises is as provided for in section 87 (10) of the Electoral Act supra,” Justice Kolawole said.
While the court proceedings lasted, supporters of both Wada and Faleke, who bore placards and banners with various messages of support for their preferred candidate, danced and sang right in front of the court’s entrance.
Some sat close to the entrance, smoking cigarette and drinking alcohol. Men of the Nigeria Police Force, kept watch all through.
On learning about the court’s pronouncement, the dejected supporters stopped their activities and departed quietly.
A consortium of lawyers has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against going ahead with the proposed Kogi State governorship election’s supplementary poll.
The exercise has been slated for December 5 in 91 polling units.
But the lawyers, who were engaged by INEC, said the All Progressives Congress(APC) could not present a candidate to replace its deceased candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu.
They insisted that contrary to the position of APC leadership, the governorship ticket does not belong to the party.
They said the ticket, by the Supreme Court judgment on CPC Ombugadu(2013) 18NWLR (part 1387)66, belong to the candidates of a party.
They said if INEC goes to court to seek interpretation on what appears novel, it will prolong the stalemate in Kogi State.
They also said any recourse to the application of the “Doctrine of Necessity” will impugn on Section 1(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
They asked INEC to countermand the November 20 governorship poll in Kogi State and conduct a fresh election in all the 21 Local Government Areas.
The lawyers, who serve as legal advisers to INEC, made their opinion known in a November 24 letter to the Secretary to the Electoral Commission.
They said their legal opinion followed a meeting they had with the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu and his National Commissioners on November 23.
The affected lawyers are Adegboyega Awomolo(SAN); A. B. Mahmoud(SAN); Onyechi Ikpeazu(SAN); Hassan M. Liman(SAN) and Ahmed Raji(SAN).
The 10-page advice reads in part: “We are of the opinion that the best option in the circumstance is to countermand the election to the office of the Governor of Kogi State, call for a nomination of another governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) and schedule another date for election in all the 21 Local Government Areas.”
The lawyers warned INEC against going to court to seek any interpretation because the legal process might prolong the political stalemate in Kogi State.
The advice said: “In a normal situation, especially in a legal system which assures speedy disposal of matters, it may not be out of place for the commission to proceed to Court to seek clarification on what appears novel.
“However , proceeding along that course will no doubt attract several interest groups who may simply employ the system of incessant applications for joinder, not only to frustrate what may be a an attempt to attain a lofty objective by the commission, but defeat the course of democracy,
“There is a clear likelihood that such a case will proceed to the Supreme Court, which will obviously be protracted for such duration that will expose the Commission to attacks of being partisan.
“Whatever decision the Commission arrives, may be challenged, but it is important that all decisions be made on the foundation of law.”
On recourse to Doctrine of Necessity, the lawyers said: “There will be no room, however for applying such a doctrine in a situation such as the present case where the Constitution has made it categorical that without candidates for the Office of Governor and Deputy Governor, there can be no valid nomination.
“Implied necessity though may be used to fill a lacuna, will not be applied in such a way as to impugn any of the provision of the constitution.
“By Section 1(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the provisions of the Constitution are supreme and no law, practice or procedure may be applied in breach thereof.”
They also said the nature of the political crisis in Kogi was never envisaged by 1999 Constitution.
The advice added: “The constitution did not capture the scenario in this matter but rather dealt with a situation where a candidate had been declared duly elected.
“Section 181 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides as follows: “If a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing 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”.
“With emphasis on the term ‘duly elected’. it does appear that in the situation at hand, nobody was declared duly elected as the election was effectively inchoate. There was no declaration made at the election. The 1999 Constitution is categorical of the term duly elected.”
On the substitution of governorship candidate, the lawyers said APC cannot forward the name of any candidate to replace Audu as in the case of Yahaya Bello.
They said: “The political party cannot forward the name of another person to fill the position for the purpose of completing the process.
“This is for the reason that the Electoral Act envisages only a situation where the candidate who must be declared elected must have taken part at all stages of the election. this means, both the process of nomination and the election itself.
“Section 141 of the Electoral Act stipulates as follows: ‘An election tribunal or court shall not under any circumstance declare any person a winner at an election in which such a person has not fully participated in all the stages of the said election.’
They insisted that contrary to the position of APC leadership, the governorship ticket does not belong to the party.
They said the ticket, by the Supreme Court judgment on CPC Ombugadu(2013) 18NWLR (part 1387)66, belong to the candidates of a party.
The legal advice said: “It must be noted that the cliché that it is the political party that contests election, which originated from the determination by the Supreme Court in Amaechi v, INEC(2008) 5 NWLR(Part 1080) 227, has been reversed in very certain terms in Supreme Court case of CPC Ombugadu(2013) 18NWLR (part 1387)66.
They quoted the Supreme court as declaring: …In other words, parties do not contest, win or lose election directly, they do so by the candidates they sponsored and before a person can be returned as elected by a tribunal or court, that the person must have fully participated in all stages of the election, starting from nomination to the actual voting.”
The headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Bayelsa State was yesterday cordoned off, as the commission moved sensitive materials to its offices in the eight local governments.
Vehicles were barred from passing through the road leading to the INEC head office on the Swali Market Road, Yenagoa, by stern-looking armed mobile policemen.
People, who had business in the area, were ordered to park their vehicles and trek to their destinations.
INEC spokesman Timidi Wariowei said the commission had distributed sensitive materials to the councils.
He listed the materials as card readers, result sheets and ballot papers.
Wariowei said INEC had sent non-sensitive materials, such as ballot boxes to the local governments.
He said the collation result sheets would later be handed over to the collation officers.
His words: “We have started distributing materials for the election. We have already sent non-sensitive materials. What we are distributing now (yesterday) are sensitive materials, such as card readers, result sheets and ballot papers. The collation result sheets will later be given to the collation officers.”
Wariowei said the transportation of the materials was policed.
He said the materials would be protected by security operatives, pending their distributions to the INEC registration areas.
Wariowei said the commission was prepared for the elections, adding that the allegation of fake Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in circulation had been reported to the police.
He urged the police to arrest anybody found with fake PVCs.