Neither late Prince Abubakar Audu’s running mate in the now hugely controversial Kogi governorship election, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke nor the man’s son, Mohammed will fly APC’s flag in the supplementary election slated for next weekend. And this is authoritative.
Rather the All Progressives Congress has settled for Yahaya Bello, thus dumping Faleke and Mohammed. As a matter of fact, APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has communicated this to INEC. He sent the Independent National Electoral Commission a letter on Friday, November 27, 2015 announcing Yahaya as their choice.
Yahaya, it would be recalled, contested the APC guber primaries with the late Audu and came second. And while Faleke and Mohammed jostled over who succeeds Audu, he too spoke out, insisting that he’s the most ideal person to continue from where the former two-term Governor who died at 68 on Sunday, November 21 stopped. And now the party has finally agreed with his argument and line of reasoning.
YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine gathered that a couple of things also worked in Yahaya’s favour, giving him an edge over Faleke and Mohammed. The first is that the APC is trying to avert a protracted legal battle with him and others; the second is that he is from Kogi Central where the bulk of the cancelled supplementary election will hold and they are banking on him to corner those votes and the third is that he understands Kogi politics more than Faleke who is more of a Lagos boy and Mohammed who could be rightly summed up as a political neophyte. And not forgetting that because he came second at the primaries, decency and equity demand that he should step into Audu’s shoes, with Faleke still retained as his running mate.
Apostles of power shift in the State are again favorably disposed to his candidacy, the reason being that he is from Kogi Central; the Minister representing the State in the Federal Cabinet is from Kogi East and Faleke, Kogi West. Thus all the key positions will be evenly distributed in the interest of peace and fairness.
As would be expected, there’s been pockets of protests here and there over Yahaya’s choice, but the party will continue to be supreme. Except the courts decide otherwise.