Kogi Poll: Wada Heads To Court

Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State may on Thursday approach the Federal High Court in Lokoja to challenge the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election in Kogi State on December 5.

Wada in suit to be filed on his behalf by his lawyers argued that INEC erred by saying that it would go ahead with the supplementary election despite the death of Abubakar Audu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the November 21 governorship election

Wada contended that what the electoral body is saying with its decision to conduct the supplementary election is that the votes cast for the late Audu were still valid in death.

Audu died on Sunday, a few hours after the commission declared the November 21 governorship poll in the state inconclusive.

The deceased had polled 240,867 votes in the election while Wada scored 199 514 votes, leaving a gap of 41,353 votes between the two leading candidates in the election.

INEC had declared the election inconclusive on the grounds that cancelled votes or registered voters in the 91 polling units, where the exercise did not take place were 49 953, a figure higher than Audu’s lead of 41,353 votes.

Wada is therefore praying the court to declare him winner on the claim that he is the candidate with the highest number of votes alive.

According to sources privy to the court action, Wada is arguing that the difference in votes between him and Philip Salawu, the Labour Party candidate is more than 49 000 and as such there should be no supplementary election.

Wada, it was further gathered, argued that INEC would not have considered a supplementary or a re-run election had it been that it was the candidate that took third or fourth that died.