Mr James Faleke, the running mate to the late
Prince Abubakar Audu, has called on the State
Election Petition Tribunal to declare him the
validly elected governor of Kogi State.
Faleke made the call in Abuja on Monday while
being led in evidence at the tribunal by his
counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).
.
“I confirm to all the documents that were
tendered this morning to be the ones I refer to
in my petition.
“I will like to adopt the documents in my
witness statement on oath and as my evidence
in the petition.
“I want the tribunal to accept my petition and
grant my reliefs as stated in paragraph 27 of my
witness statement on oath and declare me as
the winner’’, Faleke said.
When asked during cross-examination by the
Counsel to the 1st respondent, the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), if he was
still a member of the All Progressive Congress
(APC), he said ‘yes.’
He said “I am not aware that the 2nd
respondent, Gov. Yahaya Bello, is a member of
the APC. All I know is that the 2nd respondent
campaigned and worked for the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP).
“I was also not an aspirant at the primary
election, but one of the conditions Audu picked
me as his running mate was because I am a
member of the APC.”
Faleke told the tribunal that he did not know
any of the candidates who contested with the
late Audu.
According to Faleke, “I did not see the result of
the primary election because I left the venue but
the next information I had is that Late Audu
won the primary and I was chosen as the
running mate.”
He also told the tribunal that the result of the
election, which he said he co-won with Audu,
the late APC candidate , was declared in each
polling unit and each of the ward collation
centres.
Faleke said the death of Audu had nothing to do
with the inconclusiveness of the election and
that they had already won before it was
declared inconclusive.
He said that he knew they had already won the
Nov. 21 governorship election and that was why
he did not participate in the Dec. 5 election.
“Myself and Prince Audu were declared winners
at each polling unit, ward collation centre, each
local government and the state collation centre.
The state’s Returning Officer declared the result
at the state collation centers.
“Prince Audu died in the morning and the
election was declared inconclusive in the
evening, so it was declared inconclusive far
after the death’’, Faleke said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that
part of the documents that was tendered and
admitted in evidence were Form CF001, Form
CF002 and many more. (NAN)
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