Bello Won’t Be Governor In Kogi – PDP Vows

Bello Won’t Be Governor In Kogi – PDP Vows

Bello Won’t Be Governor In Kogi – PDP Vows

The Peoples Democratic Party has said
the declaration of the All Progressive
Congress’ Yahaya Bello as governor-
elect of Kogi State is a waste of time,
resources and ridiculous shadow-
chasing.
INEC had declared Bello as winner of
the governorship election early this
morning, saying he had satisfied the
requirement of the law and scored
the majority votes.
However, the PDP alleged that the
INEC, in the bid to satisfy the
President Muhammadu Buhari-led
APC Federal Government, had
succeeded in making a mockery of
itself and the entire electoral
process, by trying to install an
individual who it said, was not a
valid candidate for the election.
The party also alleged that Bello
merely scored, under his name, a
paltry 6885 vote in the
supplementary election as against
the 204,877 votes polled by the PDP
candidate, Governor Idris Wada in
the overall election.
The National Publicity Secretary of
the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a
statement in Abuja on Sunday said:-
“The action of INEC in trying to
transfer the votes earlier garnered
by the dead APC candidate, Prince
Audu Abubakar, to another
individual is completely
impractical and alien to the
nation’s Constitution and the
Electoral Act.
“The declaration by INEC that Bello
polled the highest number of votes
is an embarrassing travesty of the
nation’s democracy and electoral
process.
“Not only that this individual is not
in anyway a valid candidate in the
election, he also did not score the
overall votes declared against his
name by INEC and cannot be
declared winner under any
circumstance within the provisions
of our laws.
”Metuh said that the provisions of
the Constitution and the Electoral
Act are clear to the effect that with
the unfortunate death of Audu
before the conclusion of the
election, and the fact that the laws
do not permit the replacement of
candidates once the balloting has
commenced, the APC crashed out of
the race, leaving the PDP
candidate, Governor Idris Wada as
the clear winner.
“It is therefore unfortunate that
INEC disregarded the provisions of
the Constitution and the Electoral
Act, which left it with no other
legitimate option than to declare
Governor Idris Wada the governor-
elect,” he added.
“Instead, it went ahead to preside
over a charade, for which it is now
attempting to illicitly handover the
vote cast for a dead man to
another person, who did not
participate in the overall election.”
Metuh called on APC and Bello to
know that Wada remains “validly
elected within the dictates of our
laws under the circumstance.”
He appealed to members of the PDP
and its supporters to remain calm,
saying the law will soon take the
center stage to “right the wrong
created by INEC and declare Wada as
the governor.”