section 181(1): “If a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, [size=14pt]the person elected with him as Deputy-Governor shall be sworn in as Governor[/size] and he shall nominate a new Deputy-Governor who shall be appointed by the Governor with the approval of a simple majority of the House of Assembly of the State”.

https://www.nairaland.com/2765607/declare-me-gov-elect-audus-running
May we draw Mr. Chairman’s attention to the clear and mandatory provision of section 68(1)(c) of the Electoral Act to the effect that any result declared by Returning Officer shall be final and binding, and can only be reviewed or upturned by an Election Tribunal. In effect, the results already announced by INEC are binding, not only on all the parties, but also on INEC itself.

We want to believe that INEC is not unaware of the binding decisions of our appellate courts on this issue.

Furthermore, by the provision of section 181(i) of the constitution, our client, who was the deputy governorship candidate or the associate of Prince Abubakar Audu at the already concluded election constitutionally and automatically becomes the governor-elect of the state.

With much respect, INEC has no discretion in this matter. May we advise, most humbly, that INEC should not confuse this situation with what is intended in section 33 of the Electoral Act because the situation on ground has nothing to do with changing or substitution of the name of a candidate before election. In fairness to INEC, it had already announced the results of the election, and as at the time it so did, it honestly claimed ignorance of the death of Prince Abubakar Audu.

In law and logic, no new candidate can inherit or be a beneficiary of the votes already cast, counted and declared by INEC before that candidate was nominated and purportedly sponsored.

Assuming without conceding that INEC is even right to order a supplementary election, the votes already cast, counted and declared on Saturday and Sunday, 21 and 22 November 2015 were votes for the joint constitutional ticket of Prince Abubakar Audu and our client.

Therefore, no new or supplementary candidate can hijack, aggregate, appropriate or inherit the said votes. Assuming further, without conceding that supplementary election in 91 polling units can hold as being suggested by INEC, it is our client who should be the automatic candidate of the party, since APC cannot conduct primary election for the supplementary election in 91 polling units.

Chairman sir, this is a rather simple and straight forward matter which does not need any delay, foot dragging or procrastination. It is a constitutional imperative.

Put in other way, INEC has a bounden duty to declare our client the winner of the election. Any attempt to conduct any supplementary election in any unit whatsoever and howsoever will amount to INEC breaching and flouting the constitution and our client would definitely challenge it.

…writes APC too
In the letter to the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Olanipekun, again writing on behalf of Faleke rehearsed the same arguments as put forward to INEC, even as he added that the party should not allow itself to be distracted.

Concluding, he said:

“Arising from the foregoing, our client enjoins the APC not only to support him at actualising the mandate already given to the party under the joint ticket of himself and the late Prince Abubakar Audu, but to also distance itself from the ‘Greek gift’ offer being made by INEC, to wit, that it is allowing the APC to conduct a fresh primary election to nominate a candidate for a supplementary election in 91 polling units, where only about 25,000 PVCs are available; whereas the APC is already leading, by the announced results, with over 40,000 votes.”

APC out with Audu’s death — PDP

Meanwhile, the PDP in a statement confirming the deliberations of its national caucus insisted that the death of Audu, the APC’s running mate has inevitably put the party out of the governorship contest.

The party insists:

That with the death of its candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has legally crashed out of the governorship race as no known law or constitutional provision allows the substituting of candidates, once the ballot process has commenced.

That with the unfortunate death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has no valid candidate in the election, leaving INEC with no other lawful option than to declare the PDP candidate, Capt. Idris Wada as the winner of the election.

The party also:

Notes that the combined reading of the provisions of the constitution and Electoral Act does not in any war whatsoever support the substitution of candidates for election in the middle of the ballot process.

Notes that if APC is allowed to substitute its original candidate, then the party would have fielded two separate candidates in the same election, a scenario that is completely alien to our electoral laws and to any known democratic norms and practice world-over.

Observes that the APC, fully aware that it has no case before the law is now orchestrating confusion in the polity with a view to diverting attention from its glaring incompetence and failure of governance.

The party also demanded the immediate resignation of the chairman and all national commissioners of INEC and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami for purportedly deliberately misleading INEC into arriving at the unconstitutional decision of allowing APC to substitute its candidate in the inconclusive election.

The PDP warned that the AGF, INEC and APC were creating a scenario where a loser in a primary will patiently wait for the winning candidate to finish election and then have him either poisoned or assassinated before the final collation of results.

Group asks INEC to reverse self

Meanwhile, a group, known as the Concerned Voters in Kogi State has called on INEC to reverse its stance that the governorship election was inconclusive.
Spokesperson of the group, Abdulkareem Jimoh also rejected the invitation by INEC to the APC to present another candidate to replace Audu, saying, “We reject in totality, the decision of INEC in declaring the election inconclusive.

This decision is not only unpopular, but it is against the natural law of justice and fairness, as the number of votes scored and recorded in the just concluded election gave APC a clear victory.

“It is on record that, in the disputed 91 units, only 35,785 voters collected their PVC and are eligible to vote as against the 49,000 registered voters, claimed by INEC.

“We want the electoral body to convince us, how the outstanding 35,785 eligible voters in the said 91 units could upturn the over 41,000 margin already recorded in favour of APC”.