ichidodo:
We rather let the Supreme justices decide rather than money grubbing lawyers who are keen to let this imbroglio stretch further especially when you consider the hefty legal fees involved in the stretching exercise... Or since Audu is deceased and the deadline of submitting names of fresh candidates has elapsed then it behooves on INEC to remove and annul APC's candidature inaddition to declaring votes casted for the APC as wasted votes by virtue of their candidate's diqualification by death before proceeding to announce Runners up Wada as the Winner of Kogi Gubernatorial 2015

See this [size=14pt]M.ORON![/size]

SMH!!

The law they say is an ass...
This is getting interesting, all parties involved have a good chance and will get their day in court, we'll see how it goes.

OnankpaBa:
They urged INEC to allow the deputy governorship candidate of the APC, Abiodun Faleke, to conclude the on-going election.


Good. and i think that's what should happen.

RIP Audu...

That will not happen,reason is that Amaechi of rivers state was not elected in pdp platform as been quoted.the issue of party is null and void but rather the candidate.otherwise there was no reason for Amaechi to become gov of rivers state since pdp suspended him.but because of bribes which is the bane of our society he was forced in by the so called supreme court.if the case was against apc will day not say the election should be cancelled.let us be sincere in our comment.a rerun is the only way.let the deputy contest and show his popularity.enough of imposition of candidates by the presidency on people.the same useless way of governance by pdp is exactly what this apc is doing.pot calling kettle black

donTbone:

Hmmmmmmmmmm. that's a good write up and a reasonable point of view.
I definitely agree with the writing from the start.
But the concluding sentence, that am not sure of!

I read dat ur write up & its insightful. politicians are not to be trusted. APC should be d first suspect in dis Audu case until we are able to knw who killed Funsho Williams

lastpage:


See this [size=14pt]M.ORON![/size]

SMH!!

You are the slowpoke.

lastpage:


So, if your Brother who was healthy, dispalyed wholesome health and not known to be sick in anyway ...suddenly starts VOMITING BLOOD and DIED immediately afterwards, "YOU" will say "All is well, anybody can die at anytime"?

Abeegi, let us not stand "reason" on its head.

Death by vomiting blood is NOT NORMAL
There is a cause, most likely internal Haemorrhage resulting from "ingestion of Poison" or "a forceful impact" to the internal organs. .
That's a 'No Brainer', as we say.



Lastpage!

Your reasoning is the reasons I said what I said before that Nigerian like you do not believe that people can die suddenly without the hand of anyone in it. And what's your definition of a wholesome health. How do you know a wholesome healthy person by merely looking at them. Kanu Nwankwo was playing football without knowing that he had a dangerous big hole in his heart that could have killed him at anytime and anywhere. In your mind, he was a very healthy young man.
Many like you for years accused Friday Ekpo of killing Sam Okwaraji.
Yes as a medical practitioner, I can authoritatively tell you that a person can vomit blood for 100 many reasons. His family that you are quoting are not toxicologist or experts who had conducted an autopsy to found out what kill him.
In a society like Nigeria people even event stories to fit their warped superstitious beliefs and those like you will run to town with it and still acclaimed to be educated at the same time.

Somebody should please invite Jack bauer, he's the only one that should be trusted in this case!

Eziachi:
Your reasoning is the reasons I said what I said before that Nigerian like you do not believe that people can die suddenly without the hand of anyone in it.
Yes as a medical practitioner, I can authoritatively tell you that a person can vomit blood for 100 many reasons. His family that you are quoting are not toxicologist or experts who had conducted an autopsy to found out what kill him.
In a society like Nigeria people even event stories to fit their warped superstitious beliefs and those like you will run to town with it and still acclaimed to be educated at the same time.

The same doctors that kills their patient due to carelessness and say they are educated.make we hear something.NMA keeps covering Nigerian doctors after they commit blunder and give it a name.

ayindejimmy:


Let's hear from Barrister Ubani.


“Since the Electoral Act didn’t specifically provide for things like this happening in the course of an election, we would have to make recourse to the judicial pronouncement in the case of Rotimi Amaechi where the Supreme Court said in an election, it is the political party that is the beneficiary of election and not the candidate. That is why Amaechi that didn’t contest elections was sworn in."


So,if someone that didn't contest election was sworn-in, how much more the running mate that contested the election?

That Ameachi judge did not make legal sense. Almost every lawyer I know think the same

agabusta:


Independent candidacy is nonexistent in Nigeria.

The mandate is jointly owned by the party and the candidates. The party takes the prority here followed by the candidates.

According to the electoral Act, If the major flag bearer dies before the election, then the election will be cancelled and another election conducted.

According to the constitution, If an elected candidate dies before assuming office, the Deputy is sworn in as replacement.

The constitution/electoral Act is silent on what happens when the election is still in progress and the lead candidate of one of the parties dies.

From my own opinion, as the mandate is also owned by the party, the votes gotten so far cannot be voided as it is a vote for APC, Audu and Faleke.

As APC and Faleke are still available, the votes gotten so far rightly belongs to them and they should go on to complete the process with Faleke as the Flag bearer.

Faleke will then nominate someone as a running mate.

Still wishful thinking mister. Casted votes cannot be transferred from one individual to another whether or not both are of the same political party.

And though both the constitution & the electoral act are silent on this particular scenerio/case, the following section of the constitution seems most related to the case at hand:

"178(3)Where in an election to the office of Governor of a State one of the two or more candidates nominated for the election is the only candidate after the close of nomination, by reason of the disqualification, withdrawal, incapacitation, disappearance or death of the other candidates, the Independent National Electoral Commission shall extend the time for nomination."

Note that Faleke cannot be declared as the 'rightful candidate' for apc at this point cos he is neither the rightful winner of apc's primaries nor has inec declared apc's governorship flagbearer as winner of kogi state governorship election.

The phrase "It is the political party that is the beneficiary of an election & not the candidate" was erroneously cited by Barr. Abayomi(as culled from the op) in isolation. The position of law must always prevail over & above any party's supposed benefits (Rotimi Amaechi's case comes to mind). Amaechi was declared winner of Rivers state 2007 governorship election by the supreme court solely because in the eyes of the law, he was the 'rightful candidate' of pdp (being the winner of the party's governorship primaries at the time).

Hence simply put, Abubakar Audu's votes cannot be transferred to Faleke cos in the eyes of the law, Faleke is still apc's deputy governorship candidate & not the party's substantive governorship candidate.

The only viable way out is to cancel the inconclusive election & fix a new date for a fresh election wherein apc will field a new governorship candidate for the election.

B.T.W, I wonder why all apc members seem apprehensive & scared of having fresh elections conducted by inec.

My question is what does the constitution said about the name of a dead candidate on a ballot papers what happen to his position if say he get the highest vote

Ikiriye:

The same doctors that kills their patient due to carelessness and say they are educated.make we hear something.NMA keeps covering Nigerian doctors after they commit blunder and give it a name.

Remember what you called it yourself? A blunder. Am not telling you that it's impossible to be poisoned to death, but what I was telling you was that 99.99 percentage of deaths are caused by ill health.

Ordinary contaminated food stuff can kill you in an instant. Some species of cassava if not well processed to get rid of cyanide in them can be lethal if consumed. A food allergy can kill in an instant.

Tmaritas76:
are you authorise to write onbehalf of federal university of kogi.end time tribute

na political scientist him be nah!b

ichidodo:
We rather let the Supreme justices decide rather than money grubbing lawyers who are keen to let this imbroglio stretch further especially when you consider the hefty legal fees involved in the stretching exercise... Or since Audu is deceased and the deadline of submitting names of fresh candidates has elapsed then it behooves on INEC to remove and annul APC's candidature inaddition to declaring votes casted for the APC as wasted votes by virtue of their candidate's diqualification by death before proceeding to announce Runners up Wada as the Winner of Kogi Gubernatorial 2015

That is a PDP jaundiced view of the situation. Unfortunately for PDP it is either another APC candidate, Faleke or another election.

My take on the matter is that this case is purely a constitutional issue that had to be resolved by the highest constitutional court with an emergency ruling since the owners of their military constitution never envisioned this sort of scenario happening.
In such scenario, all judges of the Supreme Court shall be involved and whatever their decision stands based on the following:
1.Fresh poll with the APC choice of a candidate.
2. Conclude the poll with the deputy inheriting the mandate.
3. Conclude the poll with APC nominating a replacement if the mandate belongs to the party.

And then the lawmakers can then amend the law to address such a scenario in future with possibilities of:

But If I was a judge, I will go for option 1, which would be harsh on APC especially if they are unsuccessful but seems the fairest option in my personal opinion.
At the moment all opinion are based purely on selfish political affiliations and the normal and natural Nigerian tribal sentiments.

His death is unfortunate however the mandate was given to APC not Audu.

Since Audu and Faleye's names were submitted to INEC - Faleye may become the elected governor.

Again the candidate who came second during the primaries may have a case here.

I think it will come down to APC leadership to determine what they will do.

The PDP may also have a case if the candidate who came second during the primary is given the mandate. PDP can simply say his name was not submitted to INEC.

This is an opportunity for lawayers to make money as all parties will be seeking legal counsel.

godoluwa:
I read dat ur write up & its insightful. politicians are not to be trusted. APC should be d first suspect in dis Audu case until we are able to knw who killed Funsho Williams

Finally got someone who could see thing in different way!

lastpage:


Tell me the parts you dont agree with specifically and WHY.

Let us reason together.



Lastpage!

I edited and "emphasised" some lines there.

[b]*Everything points to PDP and their candidate, poisoning Audu, to get a re-run and boost their chance.

[/b]This...I dnt really wanna comment about

OrlandoOwoh:

You're confused.

Ok
Am confused, are we done now?

ebenezer8:
My question is what does the constitution said about the name of a dead candidate on a ballot papers [/b]what happen to his position if say he get the highest vote

There is no election in Nigeria where a candidates names has been on the ballot paper.

The party's name is on the ballot paper which means the mandate belongs to the party. However the party must submit that name of the candidate and his deputy/running mate to the electoral body. If the party wins the election the mandate is given to the person/persons whose names are submitted.

The problem here is that Audu's name was submitted to be governor and faleye submitted to be deputy. Now that Audu is dead --can INEC give the certificate to faleye even though his name was only submitted as deputy?

Ikiriye:

That will not happen,reason is that Amaechi of rivers state was not elected in pdp platform as been quoted.the issue of party is null and void but rather the candidate.otherwise there was no reason for Amaechi to become gov of rivers state since pdp suspended him.but because of bribes which is the bane of our society he was forced in by the so called supreme court.if the case was against apc will day not say the election should be cancelled.let us be sincere in our comment.a rerun is the only way.let the deputy contest and show his popularity.enough of imposition of candidates by the presidency on people.the same useless way of governance by pdp is exactly what this apc is doing.pot calling kettle black

stop wailing...lets wait for our legal team to battle it out.

belabela:
His death is unfortunate however the mandate was given to APC not Audu.

Since Audu and Faleye's names were submitted to INEC - Faleye may become the elected governor.

Again the candidate who came second during the primaries may have a case here.

I think it will come down to APC leadership to determine what they will do.

The PDP may also have a case if the candidate who came second during the primary is given the mandate. PDP can simply say his name was not submitted to INEC.

This is an opportunity for lawayers to make money as all parties will be seeking legal counsel.

in summary...thanks for the shut bro

lastpage:



Nice "wonderings"!

Now, since there are ALWAYS TWO SIDES to a COIN, let us look at it from "another Angle":

1.) Audu was on-course to win the election. That much we both agree upon.

2.) Audu represents the and was filled by the APC. Audu is contesting against a PDP candidate

3.) If Audu dies on his way to winning the election, APC will claim he has NOT won the election

4.) INEC is already playing out this script by declaring the election as "INCONCLUSIVE" when it is very obvious and established in law, based on precedents, that it is a party that actually holds the mandate of such election. That is, irrespective of which candidate is fielded, the party is a guardian of the mandate and can replace candidates while still retaining its mandate. \

5.) INEC has no right to declare such election "inconclusive" since the Kogi people have casted their votes and the "vote-casting process" has COMPLETED conclusively, irrespective of whether Audu dies or not and his death has "no bearing" on the Vote Count.

6.) A very important element of Criminal investigation is the postulate of MOTIVE.
Motive exposes those/who could benefit from the commission of a crime. That is, the "beneficiaries" of crime, always fall within the circle of those with the motive
Put in another way, if you have a "Benefit", then you have a "Motive"

7.) His family said he was vomiting BLOOD, before he died. as against the lie some Newspapers are peddling that he dies of cardiac arrest! Cardiac Arrest death does not involve vomiting Blood!.... that is a symptom of "ingested Poison".

8.) Going by the fact that Audu was poisoned, we can now ask:

a.) Does his PDP opponent has a BENEFIT from his death? Well, as we have seen, his death means the PDP opponent has a chance since otherwise, he would have been declared the LOOSER of the election by now

b.) Since he has something to gain by Audu's death (benefit), then we can conclude reasonably, that "he has a motive" to see Audu DEAD!
That would give him another chance for a re-run, which he thinks he might also win.


As for not wanting Audu to be the Governorship candidate, the APC was mindful of his political past but had to give-in since it seems the people of Kogi are in-love with him. ... and they have showed it in their voting pattern.
This does not mean that APC would actually go as far as killing their own "winning candidate"!?
[size=14pt]That is Hogwash. [/size]

If they actually want to do that, they would wait till he was sworn-in as Governor, then kill him so that his Deputy will just assume the seat,... not do it before he is inaugurated.
[size=14pt]Your assertion and position lacks any sense of Logic[/size]

I am sure that APC is also aware of this possible "backlash' should a re-run be ordered and would not even try running the risk of killing their own Candidate who is popular with the electorates.

Its like in Lagos State in 2011: Tinubu does not want Fashola to have a second term but he has no choice than to bow to the will of Lagosians (Egba, a ti fun yin o! Take, l have given him to you! ).
Will Tinubu go as far as poisoning Fashola, just to make that point of not wanting him? NO.


*PDP has pulled a "fast one" on the people of Kogi and Nigeria in general.
*PDP has been described as a "NEST OF KILLERS" ... even by their own party members, in the past.
*Like a cliché says, "The Apple does not fall far away from the Apple Tree".

*Everything points to PDP and their candidate, poisoning Audu, to get a re-run and boost their chance.



Lastpage!

May God bless you richly bro

ceejay80s:
Apc won the election in kogi, so no re-election, the deputy should just take over....
Yaradua no die? Did Gej not take over? Why una no say na pdp kill yaradua? Abeg make una leave story
Apc won so no long story, every man must die someday even all u nairalanders na something go kill una and na one day una go die,
Let his deputy take over from him since its their party that won

INEC is yet to declare the winner of kogi state election so don't use Yaradua and GEJ case as a precedent to this cuz they are not synonimous in anyway

Goldencollins:

INEC is yet to declare the winner of kogi state election so don't use Yaradua and GEJ case as a precedent to this cuz they are not synonimous in anyway

It is true that a winner has not been decalred but INEC can not deny that there was a governorship election in Kogi that was conducted.

INEC has done the best they can do in this circumstance - since the situation is not covered in the constitution.

However INEC can not annul an election that has been conducted because a candidate died.

donTbone:
What I know and think about Kogi Election!

After Audu's death, I knew it wasn't just 'DEATH', he was killed intentionally. But I asked who might it be
Lemme start from here...Audu was actualy nominated as the APC candidate because he gained ground in Kogi state and he was really popular, not because APC of the state eventually wanna make him go for the govnorship election or because he was a very good man, NO!. And in that case, for them (APC) to win, they need someone who will win the election.

Before his death, though the election wasn't concluded yet, am sure APC won.


Now My View about the incident.

Checking from what happened, we cant say Audu was killed by an opposition party but by his own party. Looking closely, I guess their plan is:
If Audu should win the election, since they actually want his deputy as the gov, the best is to kill Audu, make his deputy be the gov then everything goes fine. But it backfired. The election is inconclusive and I don't think if there is a rerun of the voting (which I don't think there will be), APC might lose ground to PDP I Kogi state.

But my question is still...
WHY WILL THEY WANT HIM DEAD?

sorry, uar d only person that can answer ur STU.PID question. Mayb na ur family members kill am. Non.sense

mart2k:
sorry, uar d only person that can answer ur STU.PID question. Mayb na ur family members kill am. Non.sense

ok. Thanks. Can you kip going!

In my opinion I think Party the party is the one that wins election. And the Running mate have to step in (if the running mate was registered by INEC). But then I dont know if this is captured in the constitution.

On the other hand, APC may have to choose between Taraba and Kogi, because should they twist the Kogi Election to go there way, what happend to Taraba governorship judgement. If the PDP Governor was sacked in Taraba for not being dully elected on party platform, PDP should produce another person. REMEBER "PARTY WINS ELECTION NOT INDIVIDUAL"

And should we go with that very logic, then any decampee must have his seat decleard vacant.

Remeber how Amechi came to become Governor, when Omehia was removed by court. Just the same as Taraba.


We must have a law that states those things clearly and Judges/Politicians should not be twisting things to favour them.

We cannot continue to run the country by selfish correct law interpretation by Judges.

My opinion though

zinachidi:
pls nullify that election, the kogi people voted for audu, not faleke,..

Point of correction, Kogi pple voted APC not Audu or did he contest without a political party?