Indications are rife that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi state may produce two candidates for the upcoming November 21 governorship election in the state.
The panel indicted Audu on a variety of allegations, bothering on corruption and violation of the provisions of the constitution of the APC and the guidelines for the conduct of the primaries.
Recall that other APC aspirants in the primaries had challenged Audu’s victory, while the runners up at the election, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, had written a petition condemning the exercise.
Chaired by Dr Sam Sam Jaja, with Mr Ahmad El-Marzuq and Mr Tunde Imolehin serving as secretary and member respectively, the appeal panel in an 11-page report, called for the nullification of Audu’s election and asked the party to replace him with Alhaji Bello.
The panel made reference to the case o of Hope Uzodinma vs Senator Osita Izunaso, where the court insisted that ”a political party must obey its constitution”.
In his petition to the party, Bello had accused Audu of not resigning as a member of the BoT of the party before contesting in the primary, as stipulated in the constitution of the party in Article (I) iii which states that: “Any such party office holder or officer of the party who is interested in contesting for an elective position within or at a general election shall resign 30 days before the date of the nomination or party primary for that office he is contesting for.”
His argument is that “By virtue of his membership of the BoT pursuant to Article 14 (III) (e) of the 2014 Guidelines for the Nomination of Candidates for Public Office, such party officers are not allowed to vote as statutory delegates.”
According to a source close to the panel members, “Part of the findings of the report was that there was video evidence showing Audu casting his vote at the primary election. The appeal committee had already recommended that Audu be disqualified while the runner up in the primary election (Yahaya Bello) be presented to INEC as the APC gubernatorial candidate for the state 2015 governorship election.”
Some members of the party are already suggesting that the election should be shifted by a few weeks to allow the APC address the issues arising from the panel’s decision.
“In the event Audu is retained, Bello is not trusted to be willing to mobilise for him due to the loud cry for power shift by his people in Kogi Central. If Audu is substituted for Bello you, guess is as good as mine. That it has become clear to President Muhammadu Buhari and the party that the anti-corruption stance of the new government and its renewed commitment to rule of law will be jeopardized if it doesn’t do something about the candidacy of Audu.
Meanwhile, the acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to succumb to the temptation of abusing national institutions during the Kogi elections.
The state governor, Idris Wada who is also the PDP’s candidate in the polls had also pleaded with President Muhammadu Buahri not to interfere with November 21 gubernatorial election.
In a related development, there seems to be a high level of preparation on the part of security agencies as the inspector general of police, Solomon Arase, vowed to deploy seven police officers to each of the poling units across the state in order to check electoral violence during the polls.
THIS DAY
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