Inconclusive Governorship Election in Kogi State and the Sudden Death of the Leading Aspirant- Legal Implications

Abstract

The people of Kogi State went to the polls or November 21, 2015 to elect a new governor to pilot their affairs for another four
years. They cast 240,867 votes for the All Progressives Congres ticket of Prince Audu Abubakar and Honourable James Abiodun
Faleke and 199,415 votes for the people?s Democratic Party ticket of Captain Idris Wada and Architect Yomi Awoniyi. It was
a decisive and conclusive victory for the All Progressives Congress ticket. They won the highest number of votes and had
the requisite local government spread as stipulated by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the
Electoral Act. Shortly afterwards, the APC candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu, died. For some inexplicable reason, INEC
declared the election inconclusive and ordered for a supplementary election in 91 voting units across the state. INEC
allowed the APC to substitute the late Audu with Alhaji Yahaya Bello who came second in the APC primaries. Bello went into
the supplementary election without a running mate since Faleke declined to play that role contending that he should rightly be
declared duly elected as the governor of the state. This paper takes a critical look at the knotty legal issues involved in this
case and concludes that the supplementary election was superfluous as Abubakar Audu had won at the first ballot.