By BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO
Tomorrow’s repeat re- run polls for the Kogi East Senatorial seat and two state Assembly slots can, arguably, be described as a Kogi East affair.
All the three seats to be vied for are in Kogi East Senatorial District
Before now, there were series of appeals from Kogi East stakeholders asking the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct the re-run elections.
One of such groups is the Igala/Bassa Consultative Forum, which said one year into the current administration, they are yet to have representatives in the Senate and the Kogi State House Assembly.
APC disqualified
However, the All Progressive Congress, APC, will not be participating in the Senatorial re-run election following the disqualification of its Candidate, Abubakar Muhammed by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
Muhammed had earlier won the senatorial election but a challenge by Senator Attai Aidoko of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the Federal High Court led to his disqualification as Senator- elect and disqualification of the APC from fielding a candidate for the re-run on the ground of faulty primary election.
With this development, the PDP appears favoured to win the Senatorial re-run election as other political parties such as Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN, KOWA Party, Labour Party, LP, Mega Progressive Peoples Party, MPPP and United Progressive Party, UPP, may find it difficult to mount a stiff challenge.
Aidoko loses PDP ticket to Alfa
Unfortunately, the same Senator Aidoko, whose legal challenge led to APC’s disqualification from the re-run will likewise not benefit from it as another Federal High Court disqualified him as the PDP candidate and confirmed Air Marshal Isaac Alfa (retd) as the authentic candidate of the party for Kogi East Senatorial District Election in 2015.
Challenging the irregularities such as ballot scattering and disruption of counting process during the PDP primary on December 7 2014 at Idah in which Senator Attai Aidoko was purportedly issued certificate of return, Air Marshall Alfa approached the Federal High court in Abuja, asking the court to declare him winner of the primary election, having polled the highest number of votes.
In his judgement delivered in May 2016, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba declared Air Marshal Alfa as the winner of the PDP senatorial primary for Kogi East Senatorial District.
The judgement means that, Air Marshal Alfa is the PDP flag bearer in the rerun election and by implication, stands to reap the votes cast in favour of the PDP at the first rerun election in February, 2016.
INEC preparedness
Ahead of the polls, the INEC, said it is working around the clock to ensure successful exercises. It said 1,390 Adhoc staff have been trained for the elections.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Samuel Usman who disclosed this while briefing newsmen, said it had held consultations with relevant stakeholders both at the state and national levels on the conditions precedent for peaceful repeat re-run election in the zone in the affected local government areas of Ankpa, Bassa, Dekina, Ibaji, Idah. Igalamela/Odolu, Ofu and Olamaboro.
Usman who said that the state constituency re-run elections will be conducted in 1 Polling Unit (PU 003) in Idah while in Ofu the election will be conducted in 79 Polling Units out of 129, assured the electorates that the lessons learned from the previous exercises will be used to raise the bar in the re-run polls.
He said that voters without permanent voters cards, PVC, will not be allowed to vote and warned them to steer clear of the polling and collation centres, “Security agencies have collectively vowed to secure the election and would deal decisively with hoodlums’’ who attempt to disrupt the process.
He also appealed to traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the area to preach the message of peace to their subjects, before, during and after the polls,
On who is the authentic candidate of the PDP during the Senatorial re-run election, he said that the rightful candidate for Kogi East senatorial district is AVM Isaac Alfa, “INEC will rely on the last court judgement which recognised Alfa unless when the commission is instructed by another court of competent jurisdiction., There has been various cases in which INEC had to substitute candidates of some parties on the order of court even when elections are very close. INEC as a creation of law will not violate any court ruling.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/kogi-re-run-eastern-affair/
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