Today is not a happy day for Kogi governorship hopeful, James Abiodun Faleke.
And the reason is simple – his desire to take over from Yahaya Bello as the Governor of Kogi State just got truncated.
The Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, hours ago and on Monday, June 6, 2016, dismissed his petition for lack of merit.
Faleke, currently a member of the Federal House of Representatives, was the APC deputy governorship candidate in the November 21, 2015 governorship election in Kogi State.
He contested alongside Prince Abubakar Audu who died suddenly and hours to his being officially declared the winner.
The party settled for Bello as their candidate, which didn’t go down well with Faleke. He headed for court and was today told that he can’t be Kogi governor yet.
The three-man tribunal, led by Justice Halima Mohammed, held that Faleke lacked locus standi to challenge Bello’s election having never been sponsored by his party, the APC, as a governorship candidate in both the November 21, 2015 election and the December 6, 2015 supplementary poll.
It also went further to dismiss his petition for lack of merit.
Expectedly, celebration has been going on in Bello’s camp, but the reverse is the case at Faleke’s.