Legal Luminary and Human rights activists, Festus Keyamo examined the legal implication of the death of the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in the Kogi governorship poll, saying his running mate, James Faleke should automatically become the governorship candidate of the APC constitutionally.

Below is the full statement as released by Keyamo:



The reported death today, Sunday, November 22nd, 2015, of the APC candidate in the Kogi State Governorship elections, Prince Abubakar Audu, is extremely shocking and sad. I would like to express my condolences to the entire family of Audu and to the people of Kogi State.

However, the real question agitating the minds of everybody is the legal implication regarding the inconclusive Governorship elections at the time of his demise. To state it correctly he was said to have died AFTER the announcement of the results by INEC and after INEC had declared the elections inconclusive. Admittedly, this is a strange and novel constitutional scenario. It has never happened in our constitutional history to the extent that when an election has been partially conducted (and not before or after the elections) a candidate dies. What then happens?

This is a hybrid situation between what happened in the case of Atiku Abubakar/Boni Haruna in 1999 and the provision of section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2010.

In the case of Atiku Abubakar/Boni Haruna [which is now a clear constitutional provision of section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)] the Supreme Court held, in effect, that “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, the person elected with him as Deputy governor shall be sworn in as Governor 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”.

In the case of section 33 of the Electoral Act 2010 it provides, in effect, that if a person has been duly nominated as a candidate of his party and he dies before the election then the political party has the right to replace him with another candidate and not necessarily the Deputy Governorship candidate.

Now, does the Kogi situation fit into section 181(1) of the Constitution as quoted above or section 33 of the Electoral Act mentioned above?

My simple position is that the Kogi situation fits more into section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and as such James Abiodun Faleke automatically becomes the governorship candidate of the APC. This is because even though the election in inconclusive, votes have been counted and allocated to Parties and candidates. As a result the joint ticket of Audu/Faleke has acquired some votes already. James Abiodun Faleke is as much entitled to those votes already counted as much as the late Abubakar Audu. He has a right to cling to those votes going into the supplementary election.

There is only one problem, though. Who nominates Faleke’s Deputy? Unlike section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution, he cannot approach the House of Assembly of the State to approve a nomination by him of a Deputy. This is because, in reality, he is not duly elected yet. Therefore it is only reasonable to conclude that it is APC (Faleke’s political party) that should submit the name of a fresh Deputy Governorship candidate to INEC for the supplementary election.

This is the only position in this situation that accords with reason and good sense.

Cc lalasticlala

Compiled by :http://streetgist.com/legal-implications-of-audu-abubakars-death-festus-keyamo/

APC

WINNER

This is getting interesting..

Sad news for someone(Audu'z FnF) is good news for someone else(Faleke)

Good! Let's hear it from our legal experts!

This is serious.

Lalasticlala do the needful

Mtcheeeeew

the election was declared inconclusive
in as much as apc was leading,does not mean it can not be overturned with the supplementary election by the pdp,

not matter how we argue this,the lacuna that apc was not declared winners can not be covered by any constitusional misintepretation.

one certainty is that there is going to be a fresh poll,and apc will have to present a fresh candidate.

i think am better than this festus keyamo of a guy

Ok

this man is apc.

Warp interpretation of Electoral act by a partisan lawyer.

Who becomes the APC flag bearer and who now serves as the running mate to stand for the inconclusive election when it is forbidden for one candidate to represent a party?

Is it lawful for votes cast for Audu/Faleke to be added to a partial combo?

It doesn't add up hence a new election is appropriate and sustainable as to check breakdown of law and order in the State.

Anyone that thinks APC will forgo a massive 40,000 plus advantage must be smoking the most potent weed in the world.

It's still neither here nor there. Am sure this case will cause some ripples. It's not going to be straightforward if Wada eventually lose the election.

IsraeliAIRFORCE:
Warp interpretation of Electoral act by a partisan lawyer.

Who and who will stand for the inconclusive election when it is forbidden for one candidate to represent a party?

Is it lawful for votes cast for Audu/Faleke to be added to a partial combo?

It doesn't add up hence a new election is appropriate and sustainable as to check breakdown of law and order in the State.

A drunken PDP miscreant interpretation.

Political lawyer.

Filmewell:
this man is apc.

this woman is pdp

Him don talk him own, am waiting for falana... all lawyers craving for popularity

IsraeliAIRFORCE:
Warp interpretation of Electoral act by a partisan lawyer.

Who and who will stand for the inconclusive election when it is forbidden for one candidate to represent a party?

Is it lawful for votes cast for Audu/Faleke to be added to a partial combo?

It doesn't add up hence a new election is appropriate and sustainable as to check breakdown of law and order in the State.

And you think you have made sense?

Wada don win be dat. igala wey be like hausas. They only vote their own even if na dunde. And believe me they can pull 41k votes to overturn the Apc lead.

Faleke was imposed on Audu by Tinubu, and from the news that lagos was agog by Audu's demise, even APC igalans will teem up with wada to make sure Faleke doesn't rule them. Days ahead will be soo interesting.

Ok o let's watch and see what plays out...

Let inec just approach the supreme court on Tuesday and let's get the right interpretation soon to avoid back and forth. Because many lawyers are already angling to stand for Faleke and many politicians are ready for fresh elections. I say this as a Kogite from Audu's LGA

Honestly I don't know what to say

IsraeliAIRFORCE:
Warp interpretation of Electoral act by a partisan lawyer.

Who and who will stand for the inconclusive election when it is forbidden for one candidate to represent a party?

Is it lawful for votes cast for Audu/Faleke to be added to a partial combo?

It doesn't add up hence a new election is appropriate and sustainable as to check breakdown of law and order in the State.

.

Guy are u high on cow dung? Look at the bolded again and tell me how many persons stood for election... was the vote not first for APC and whoever they bring to represent the party?

Festus keyamo jut said what he think may happen....pls don't think he his supporting apc

dridowu:
Honestly I don't know what to say

Just look and nod...its a part of life and beside politics is a dirty game with difference views, but the whole issue is just too complicated..

Everyone has his interpretation cos the situation poses a legal lacuna.

We should get some things clear;

1. Abubakar Audu, until his death was not a Governor-elect, but a candidate in an election.

2. The kogi gubernatorial elections is on-going and has not been concluded, even as I type this. There is no winner yet, until declared by INEC.

What I think will apply in this situation is:

The Courts will hold that independent candidacy is unknown to our laws and the vote for Audu is a vote for APC, but since the law did not envisage this situation, APC cannot nominate a fresh flagbearer as provided by S. 33 of the Electoral Act.

The courts will have to make a pronouncement that will serve as a guide and law in this instance. Either to;

1. Ask the running mate of the Flagbearer to continue with the ticket. Or;

2. Declare votes casted for the APC as wasted votes by virtue of their candidate's diqualification by death.

The erroneous belief by many that INEC will ask APC to nominate a fresh flagbearer is wrong and unknown to law, neither can INEC call for fresh elections because a candidate in an election died.


My opinion is that APC candidate has been diqualified by death and they do not have a candidate in the election. Though he has the highest number of votes until his death, he was still a candidate and the election has not been concluded. This is trite law.

ogmaskman:
It's still neither here nor there. Am sure this case will cause some ripples. It's not going to be straightforward if Wada eventually lose the election.

Wada is already a looser.

oshyno:
Wada don win be dat. igala wey be like hausas. They only vote their own even if na dunde. And believe me they can pull 41k votes to overturn the Apc lead.

Faleke was imposed on Audu by Tinubu, and from the news that lagos was agog by Audu's demise, even APC igalans will teem up with wada to make sure Faleke doesn't rule them. Days ahead will be soo interesting.

Out of the inconclusive votes only 25000 has PVC.So only 25000 is eligible to vote.

modath:
PDP folks are just hoping against hope..

If the death announcement had come before the announcement of a [b]partial/b] result, they would have had a reason to be hopeful..

A supplementary election is all that is in the offing, anyone believing what the lawyers sympathetic to PDP are positing is just living in delusion..

APC have two choices, allow Faleke to go on & become the governor or choose from one of the guber primary contestants...

So its now d party dat wins elections,but for Taraba,Apc said PDP didn't have a candidate? Hypocrites