We Are Not Aware Of Audu’s Death, Says INEC

With the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claiming ignorance of the death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the controversy over the Kogi State governorship election deepened yesterday. Audu was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state.

According to the INEC, though it had heard the news of Audu’s death, it was yet to be officially notified of the development. It is the responsibility of the party to immediately notify the commission about the death of its candidate. While the APC has announced Audu’s passing, it has not formally informed INEC.

The party has also not made any request as to whether to be granted some days to conduct fresh primaries to pick a new candidate, or to now adopt its running mate in the poll, James Faleke, as its substantive candidate or even to demand an outright cancellation of the election.

Nick Dazang, the Deputy Director of Publicity of the commission in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said: “APC has to do proper notification and accompany it with the certificate of death issued by a medical doctor.

“Once the commission is notified, it will look at relevant clauses of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the Electoral Act 2010 as amended and also the constitution of APC itself,” he said.

The commission which said it was studying the situation went into a crucial meeting presided over by its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to review the poll and come up with a definite date when the commission will conduct a supplementary election.

Addressing party representatives, stakeholders and journalists at the Kogi State INEC headquarters, Lokoja, venue of the collation, the Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Emmanuel J. Kucha, had declared that the 41,353 votes difference between the two leading parties, the APC and Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) was lower than the 49,953 cancelled results spread across 91 polling units in 19 local governments in the state, hence no winner could be declared.

But the question remains: Should INEC go ahead to declare the deputy governorship candidate of the Kogi APC, Faleke, the standard-bearer for the gubernatorial election in the state? In attempting to answer this question, which portends a constitutional crisis, lawyers remain divided.

In the election which was declared inconclusive, INEC said that the late Audu, who was the governorship candidate of the APC, was ahead, scoring the highest votes of 240,867 while the incumbent governor of the PDP, Idris Wada, came second with 199,514 votes.

The former Attorney General of Abia State and law teacher, Awa Kalu (SAN) said since the constitution did not envisage such a situation, the best thing to do was to elevate Faleke as the governorship candidate for the election.

His words: “As far as I am concerned, they should conclude it with the deputy elevated to the position of the governor. There are three stages in an election. We have passed the pre-election stage and are now in the election proper. We have a candidate who took an associate, (that is what the law calls him) and the candidate himself has died leaving the associate. As far as I am concerned, they are on a joint ticket. Therefore, the surviving deputy governorship candidate, who is a candidate in the election, should be allowed to continue with the election.

“The election is 90 percent concluded because that represents the results already announced. Some lawyers are saying that the election should be annulled. INEC does not have the powers to annul the election. I think they should conclude the election with his running mate while he chooses his own deputy governorship candidate. The law did not envisage such a thing and would not capture everything.”

Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Roland Otaru, agrees with Kalu. He believes that the deputy governorship candidate should naturally step into the shoes of his late boss. “The issues are very clear. Without a deputy governor, there can’t be a governor. I hear people say that there should be a fresh election, but there is a timeline within which to nominate candidates and go into election. Would they amend the electoral act? So it is very easy for the deputy to step into his shoes to conclude the remaining polling units because he also participated in the election”, he stated.

According to him, if the deputy governorship candidate was not nominated, Audu would not have participated in the election in the first place. “There is a time lag within which to nominate candidates. Are they now saying that the APC should go and conduct another primaries? James Faleke will just step into his shoes and nominate a candidate who will be his deputy”, he submitted.

Otaru added that the doctrine of necessity should be invoked in the circumstance, since the constitution did not envisage it.

His words: “In trying to change him, it would violate the provisions of the electoral act, because there are times within which to nominate a candidate, time to submit the names of nominated candidates, time to campaign and all that.”