KOGI, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 – James Faleke, running mate to the late Abubakar Audu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi state, says he has no regrets challenging the process which threw up Yahaya Bello as governor.The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the substantive election inconclusive, and Audu subsequently died, making APC to substitute him with Bello in the supplementary poll.
The commission refused to accede to the request of Faleke who wanted to be declared governor, and Faleke headed to the court.
In a statement issued shortly after Tuesday’s verdict of the supreme court, Faleke said he went to the court in the interest of the Kogi people.
He said he was awaiting the details of the judgement to “know which areas of our nation’s jurisprudence require urgent review”.
“We have heard the judgement handed down by the supreme court jurists upholding Yahaya Bello as governor. We shall wait for the full text of the judgement to know why they came to that conclusion,” Faleke said in a statement which Duro Meseko, his spokesman, issued on his behalf.
‘But let it be stated here that we have no regrets challenging the declaration of our election as inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). What we did was to defend the votes cast for Audu/Faleke by the over 240,000 electorate on November 21, 2015.
“The people voted for us as candidates, not APC. They believed in the kind of leadership we offered to provide. It would therefore amount to crass betrayal of the trust of the electorate not to have defended their votes till the end.”
He urged all his supporters to remain calm, peaceful and law abiding.
