KOGI ELECTION: MORE RIVERS TO CROSS

Kogi State has earned the sobriquet of anything goes, reckons Richard Elesho

Three weeks ago, the youthful Governor of Kogi State, Alh. Yahaya Bello began a Hercules-like triumph in the series of judicial mines placed to test his validity as the number one citizen of the Confluence State. For some, the governor’s serial victory at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal where his major petitioners suffered bloody noses is confirmation of Dino Melaye’s hypothesis of Divine involvement. At the inauguration of Bello on January 27 in Lokoja, the stylish senator representing Kogi West had pulled a rude joke that though Kogi people voted for another candidate, God overruled them and voted for Bello. Thus, as Justce Halima, who claimed to be under malaria parasite’s attack, threw out the petitions one after the other many simple folks were convinced that God must have indeed voted for Bello who was not even a candidate in the November 21 election. However, for others, the tribunal judgment is an added spice to Kogi’s reputation as a land where absurdities are normal. A theatre where nothing is impossible.

They may be right. After all, the state has attained notoriety as the experimental guinea pig for modern Nigerian politics and law. We do not need to go far to provide proofs of this fame. It is a pioneer on many fronts. The first state where a governorship election was annulled by a tribunal and upheld by an Appeal Court. The first state to be ruled by an acting governor. The first state to go through a rerun poll. You will also recall that it holds the record as the only state where two persons were sworn into office: one as governor and the other as acting governor the same day. Even as you read this, at least two persons are still laying claims to the speakership of the State House of Assembly! Momoh Jimoh Lawal supported by 14 of his colleagues and armed with a High Court judgment insists he is the Speaker. But Imam Alfa leading a group of five members is the one recognised as Speaker by the executive. A third force is the National Assembly whose threat to take over functions of the Assembly has remained a mirage. And the mother of all oddities? Hold your breath. The first state to produce a governor from supplementary election - a strange phenomenon under the Nigerian law and customs.

The controversial and supplementary nature of the election that produced Bello as governor has been the bane of his mandate. The Kogi governorship poll held November 21 last year. It was however declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As the votes poured in, and collation got underway, it was clear that Prince Abubakar Audu, then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his running mate, James Abiodun Faleke were coasting to victory. They were leading their closest rivals, incumbent Governor Idris Wada and Deputy Yomi Awoniyi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with about 41,000 votes having polled a salivating 240,000 votes to Wada’s paltry 199,000 votes. However, a legal technicality prevented the victory from being announced on the spot. Some 49,000 votes, a little more than the margin of defeat were still outstanding. The Electoral Act, which moderates the conduct of all elections into public offices in Nigeria makes it mandatory that the yet to participate 49,000 registered voters must not be disenfranchised. Consequently, the returning officer invoked this legal provision and declared the election inconclusive. A new date for the conclusion was yet to be announced when news of Audu’s death filtered in. The APC, the state under which the late Prince was winning the election, came in to claim all the votes leaving none for his rattled political patrimony.

From a shaky start, the party went to its archive and awarded the disputed votes to Bello who came second in the primary that produced the fallen Audu. Fortunately, it had an ally in a restive and partisan attorney general and minister of justice who admonished the party to bring a new candidate in the middle of an election. The supplementary poll that held on Saturday, December 5, 2015 was a walk over for Bello. He shored up the APC total votes to about 247,000 with his 6,000 supplementary votes and thus became the first person in humanity to win public office on the strength of a make up election. When he was inaugurated in January he did not have a deputy governor as Faleke who was retained on the INEC documents as running mate vehemently rejected the offer. He then approached the tribunal to agitate for his declaration as governor.

It then appeared that Bello’s governorship was imperilled from the start. Faleke felt terribly shortchanged by his party and INEC. He reasoned that Audu had already won the election before he died and urged the tribunal to compel INEC to declare him as winner since he was on a ‘joint ticket’ with Audu. In his opinion, the supplementary election was completely unnecessary and an illegality. The simple question he wanted the tribunal to answer was whether INEC was right in declaring the Nov. 21 election inconclusive. The tribunal failed to answer that question but instead threw out his case for lack of merit.

Tribunal Chairman Justice Halima Mohammed held that since Faleke did not participate in every stage of the election, he lacked locus standi to bring the petition before it. It resolved that since the November 21 election was declared inconclusive, the right to challenge its outcome had not accrued to Faleke. The tribunal declined jurisdiction to question the party’s internal process that led to the nomination for Audu’s replacement. It appeared that the tribunal spoke from both sides of the mouth. The question of what constitute ‘every stage’ of the election was left dangling. If Faleke was dismissed for not participating in every stage of the election, then what do we say about Bello? A man who did not participate in campaigns and the general election can hardly be said to have faired better under the law.

After summarily dismissing Faleke’s case in the manner described above, the tribunal landed its hammer on its next victim, former Governor Wada of the PDP. Wada’s case was multi-faceted. He opined that since Audu died in the middle of a general election and not primary, the period allowed by law for the substitution of a candidate had elapsed. He argued that Bello who was used to replace Audu could not inherit the votes of a dead person. He alleged further that Bello was not even qualified to contest the election because he was not a registered voter in Kogi State and he went into the supplementary election without a running mate. Finally, he brought a forensic report and expert to show that the election was rigged in favour of the APC. Again, his application was dismissed for lack of merit.

Although Justice Halima graciously granted him locus standi, she said the load of scanned electoral materials brought by the forensic expert and which she had earlier admitted or marked as exhibit were ‘dumped’ on the tribunal. The tribunal was silent on Bello’s invalid voter’s card and held that he did not contest the December 5 supplementary poll without a running mate. She stunned listeners when she declared that Faleke who she declined locus standi a day before, was also Bello’s running mate for the make up election. The tribunal held that the provisions of the law as it relates to substitution of candidate by a political party become invalid in an inconclusive election. The Wada case still left many unanswered questions. Can votes of a corpse be transferred to the living or do they die with him? Between a party and a candidate, who owns the votes cast in an election? What is the life span of the result of a primary election? Can a material presented and accepted as exhibit be said to have been dumped on a court?

Once the tribunal threw out the Faleke and Wada cases many observers predicted that the other cases before it would suffer the same fate. They were right to the point. The petition of Philip Salawu, a former deputy governor and candidate of the Labour Party was rejected. That of the African Development Party (ADC) was equally dismissed for lack of merit. The last of the petitioners is the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). They complained that it was unlawfully excluded from participating in the election as its logo was omitted on the ballot papers. Effortlessly the tribunal also threw out the case for lacking merit. All the petitioners have rejected the judgments and vowed to proceed on appeal in search of Justice. Elesho is a public affairs analyst