KOGI 2015: Confluence of commotions

EVER since the release of election timetable for the Kogi governorship polls, aspirants of different political parties traversed the length and breadth of the state, scavenging for the golden votes of the electorates. From issues to vitriol and garrulous campaign, the election, no doubt, lived up to expectations.
Bookmakers had tipped the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the stars of the contest. They are. But they failed to take the shine of the smaller parties in the race with the Labour Party, LP and Progressive People’s Alliance, PPA showing great potentials for the future. They campaigned as hard as the two major parties to engrave their ideals in the minds of Kogi voters.
Few days to the election, the major parties started throwing allegations of attempts at manipulating the process against one another. A handful of violent incidents were recorded and the atmosphere was charged ahead of a landmark election that would define the intent of the people of the state. As the election was under way, the then governorship candidate of the APC, late Prince Abubakar Audu expressed confidence in winning the polls, with his running mate, Hon. Abiodun Faleke sharing a similar sentiment at his Ekinrin Adde country home.
But the running mate to the PDP candidate and the Deputy Governor of the state, Arc. Abayomi Awoniyi, accused the APC of trying to rig the election. He called on the electorate and security agents to be vigilant enough to thwart the antics of “anti-democratic elements that are out to silence the voice of the masses”.
As results started trickling in, it became obvious that the APC was in the lead in majority of the local councils in the state. Areas that were hitherto the stronghold of the PDP were lost to the APC in a keenly contested election. Such councils include Kabba/Bunu and Igalamela/Odolu.
The cancellation of 91 polling units with over 49,000 votes momentarily paused the celebration of the APC. But hours later, the shocker surfaced: Prince Abubakar Audu died. And a melodrama was kicked off. A prophet promised to raise Audu from death, sparking wild celebration in Lokoja, the state capital. At that time, Kogi was going through an inconclusive election and an “uncertain” death.
The revelation by an unnamed member of the late politician’s family to the effect that their benefactor was poisoned by a “top political figure from the South West” threw up a twist in the already confused situation. Who killed Audu? To gain what? How did it happen? There were more questions than answers.
Then came the legal quagmire
As the dust of Audu’s death was settling down, the feathers of our constitution were ruffled by the unpreparedness of our law books for what is fast getting popular as the Audu Scenario. The constitution and the electoral law take care of death or withdrawal of a candidate before or after the conclusion of an election. They never envisaged the death of a candidate before the conclusion of a voting process.
Analysts are of the view that had the election results been declared and a winner emerged, his or her deputy would have been the beneficiary of the Audu Scenario.
The death of Audu opened old wounds emanating from the acrimonious primary that threw up the late politician in the first place. Despite the high wire intrigues against Prince Audu, he still emerged as the governorship candidate of the party. Like the cat with nine lives, the late Audu also survived the report of a high-power committee headed by Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, to look into the propriety of his candidacy. The committee recommended that the late politician be stripped off the party’s ticket for failure to comply with the guidelines governing the primaries. He would have been many times lucky but for death.
Since the demise of Audu, many legal opinions have emerged. While many favour the continuation of the polls with Audu’s running mate, Faleke, other informed legal opinion faulted the arrangement on the ground that Faleke didn’t go through any primary election.
In the course of the scrabble for the shoes of Audu, many names were thrown up, including but not limited to Isah Jibrin Echocho, a former Afribank chief, Mohammed Audu, the first son of Prince Abubakar Audu and Alhaji Yahaya Bello, a multimillionaire business mogul from Okene Local Council of the state.
The ethnic jingoism that had characterized the state from inception reared its ugly head again with the three major ethnic groups in the state laying claims to the governorship ticket. While Kogi West was building a wall of interest around Faleke on the ground that he holds a joint ticket with the late Prince Audu, Kogi Central leaders have quickly closed ranks behind one of their own, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on the ground that the transport czar came second in the party’s governorship primaries. The largest ethnic group of the tripod, the Igala people are making a case that Audu can only be replaced by another Igala.
As the contest creeps to the climax, the APC may settle for Bello, to be under a safe legal canopy. But the PDP is also believed to be doing everything legally possible to thwart the conduct of the supplementary election slated for December 5, 2015.
PDP believes that the election had already been won and lost, owing to the sudden demise of the candidate that had dragged the contest to a supplementary stage. The supplementary polls may need more legal supplements to hold as the PPA and the Democratic People’s Party, DPP are already in court to challenge the decision of INEC to go on with the polls.
However it goes, interesting times lie ahead in the Kogi scenario.