Loading ...Youths under the platform of Kogi Youth Vanguard (KYV) on Wednesday took a protest to the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) demanding that the party should allow the election to go on with candidacy of Hon. Jame Abiodun Faleke, the running-mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu.
But the Democratic People’s Congress (DPC) in a statement signed by its national chairman, Rev. Olusegun Peters, called for a fresh governorship election in Kogi state.
Speaking with the newsmen when the group staged a protest to press their demand, spokesperson of the group Mr. Bamidele Peters, said section 181 of the Nigerian constitution should be made to apply under the circumstance to enable the party resolve the crisis of substitution in which APC finds itself now.
He said: ” Though we sympathize with the family of the late APC governorship candidate , Audu Abubakar, and the Kogi electorate who voted for APC, we feel that this mandate is just for an individual but the entire party. We think the election should be allowed to be concluded and that there should be no replacement of the candidate until that was done. The party will after the election be able to replace its candidate.
“Our own interest under the circumstance is to ensure that the supplementary election is concluded. Even if the party will want to replace its candidate it should be after the election and I feel that if possible the running mate,Abiodun Faleke should be allowed to step in to replace the late governorship candidate”.
The DPC chairman said: “We strongly oppose the attempt by INEC and the ruling APC to impose a candidate on the good people of Kogi State in violation of democratic ideals. We urge all lovers of democracy and good governance to resist this anti-democratic stance of the electoral umpire in connivance with APC.
“We demand a fresh governorship election that will reflect the will of the people. This is the only way the nation’s frail democracy will be deepened and strengthened to provide its dividends to the longsuffering compatriots”.
