Lawyers Knock PDP Over Call For Wada’s Declaration As Winner

                             

A call by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that its candidate and incumbent Governor Idris Wada be declared winner of last Saturday’s Kogi State governorship election was yesterday rejected by lawyers.

They said it would amount to an illegality for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to name Wada, who polled 199, 514 to trail All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, the late Abubakar Audu, who scored 240, 867, as the winner.

According to the lawyers, by asking that Idris be returned to office on the strength of the November 21 election, the PDP will be attempting to get what he lost at the ballot.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Prof Konyinsola Ajayi, said rather than declaring Wada winner, a fresh poll should be conducted with the All Progressives Congress (APC) replacing the late Abubakar Audu with another candidate.

“I believe there ought to be a re-election to get the true wishes of the people. This will be in consonance with the decision of the Supreme Court when Atiku Abubakar was transiting from governor in Adamawa State to vice president.”

Activist-lawyer Jiti Ogunye said the PDP would be reaping where it did not sow should INEC heed such call.

He said: “The PDP is being clever by half. It wants to reap where it has not sown. The law does not support that kind of argument. What it aspires to achieve is not in consonance with the rule of law.

“The party is saying that there is no need for a supplementary election; I agree. That has been my position, that the election had already been concluded as at the time it was declared inconclusive.

“Therefore, the late Abubakar Audu ought to have been declared the winner of the election. Because of his demise the provision of Section 181 of the Constitution ought to have taken effect, meaning that the deputy governorship candidate becomes the deputy governor-elect and then the governor-elect.

“The invented inconclusiveness of the election by INEC was a figment of its imagination. Registered voters are not the ones that determine the outcome of an election, but the actual voters who are accredited and who have their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).”

Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch,Yinka Farounbi described PDP’s call as unfortunate.

He said: “Election has been conducted and results declared. The only thing that has not been declared in clear terms is to announce the winner or the loser. Since there was a winner as at the time of declaring the result, it then presupposes that if there is anything to be done, it is for INEC to declare the winner.

“The issue of whether Audu died or not is inconsequential. Judging from the fact that election was conducted and results declared before he died, whatever is to be declared must be what the position was before his death.

“It has been established by the Supreme Court that it is the party people voted for and not the individual. If that is the case, INEC should declare the winner between the PDP and APC and not between Wada and Audu,” he contended

Lagos-based lawyer, Abayomi Omoyinmi, said it would amount to an illegality for INEC to declare Wada the winner.

He argued that although Audu died during the course of the election process, he had a joint ticket with his running mate.

Omoyinmi said there was no law or precedent to support PDP’s claims.

His words: “Audu’s death cannot transform to INEC declaring the PDP candidate winner because Audu contested the election on a joint ticket with his running mate. So, there is no way INEC can declare the election in favour of the PDP candidate on those circumstances.

“This is because the result as already declared by INEC does not even show that the PDP candidate is close to winning the election. If anything, the APC candidates are closer and already coasting home to victory.”

Another activist-lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, who has filed a suit praying the court to order INEC to conduct a fresh poll, said the PDP’s call has no legal backing.

He said: “There is no law supporting the declaration of the election result in favour of the PDP. It is nowhere in the constitution.

“There is also no law supporting the position of the Attorney-General and INEC that the APC should present a fresh candidate and inherit the outstanding result of an election that was declared inconclusive. There is no basis for such.

“I don’t think that the APC should run into the trap of wanting to claim victory at all cost. I am sure that the party can always secure victory many times over.”

“But to go into a supplementary election is to play into the trap of the PDP. That is the way I reason as a lawyer. And we have checked all the law books, both the Constitution and the Electoral Act, and there is no single provision that justifies the preservation of election results in favour of a dead candidate.”

Report by Debisi Onanuga, Joseph Jibueze and Robert Egbe. 

Source: The Nation