Speaking through its Chairman, Mr. Olufunmilayo Alabi, the forum said the action of the leaders of the party was capable of jeopardising its success at the rescheduled supplementary election.
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Four separate suits, countering the planned supplementary governorship election in Kogi State, have been instituted and all of them are prays the court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from going ahead with poll scheduled for Saturday, December 5.
“Commission is committed to conduct the two elections, that is why in respect of Kogi, in spite of what happened, we came out with public notice which invites the APC to submit its replacement candidate for the election”, he stated.
As at last night, Vanguard learnt that Faleke’s name was still penned down as the APC’s deputy governorship candidate despite his repudiation of his nomination as running mate to Yahaya Bello.
Nick Dazang, the INEC Deputy Director of Publicity said on Monday that APC has already sent the name of Bello as replacement for Audu in the supplementary election.
After the three issues were formulated, the trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole adjourned till Thursday for adoption of addresses and also fixed judgement for Friday.
Wada is praying the court to declare him winner of the November 21 gubernatorial election, while Johnson Usman, Emmanuel Daikwo and Emmanuel Igbokwe are asking the court to conduct a fresh election in the state.
In the suit filed by his counsel, Wole Olanipekun, Mr. Faleke, a serving member of the House of Representatives, said contrary to the claim by the electoral body, the election was conclusive and that as the running mate to Mr. Audu, he should be declared victor.
Meantime, though both INEC and the Attorney General of the Federation were represented in court yesterday, there was no legal representation for the APC, which was equally cited as a defendant in the suit.
The running mate to late governorship candidate of Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress in Kogi state, Abubakar Audu has picked a running mate for himself James Faleke chose the son of his former principal, Mohammed Audu.
“A declaration that by the combined reading of sections 179 (2)(a) and (b) and 181(1) of the constitution, upon the death of a person duly elected as the governor of a state, the person elected with him as deputy-governor is to be sworn in as the governor of the state”.
According to the result declared by INEC, Mr. Audu had the highest number of votes thus leading the 21 other candidates, including the incumbent governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, who was the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party.
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“Assuming without conceding that INEC is even right to order a supplementary election, the votes already cast, counted and declared on Saturday, 25th November 2015, were votes for the joint constitutional ticket of Prince Abubakar Audu and our client”.
