Violence erupted at the National Secretariat of the All Progressives
Congress in Abuja on Monday as supporters of the new Kogi State
governorship candidate of the party, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, and James
Faleke’s loyalists engaged themselves in a bloody clash.
Faleke was the running mate of the late APC governorship candidate in the
November 21 election in the state, Alhaji Abubakar Audu.
Stones, sticks and other missiles were deployed in different directions
by thugs, who broke through police barricades in an attempt to force
their way into the party headquarters.
As the clash raged, party leaders were holed up in a meeting behind
closed doors on the crisis over the choice of a replacement for the late
Audu.
Meanwhile APC has submitted Bello’s name as a replacement for the late
Audu, which the Independent National Electoral Commission confirmed
receiving on Monday.
Although what triggered the violence was unclear as of the time of filing
this report, it was learnt that an altercation between two rival
supporters led to a free-for-all.
Several vehicles were vandalised and no fewer than five persons were
injured in the fracas in which the supporters dismissed the presence of
security operatives to engage one another in a violent confrontation.
Some policemen rushed one of the badly injured fighters to an undisclosed
health facility.
Police later called for a reinforcement to be able to bring the situation
under control.
The meeting of the APC leaders with Bello and Faleke was scheduled to
begin at 3pm but did not start until about 4.20pm.
Bello’s supporters arrived at the secretariat first in several buses but
the security officials restricted them to the outer parameters of the
main entrance gate of the party headquarters.
They entertained themselves with drumming, singing and dancing when
Faleke and his entourage arrived at the scene.
As soon as Faleke and his close associates entered the party secretariat,
supporters of both men struggled to outdo each other in shouting the
names of their principal.
They yelled repeatedly “Sai Faleke” (only Faleke) and “Sai Bello” (only
Bello).
This led to a hot exchange of words between the supporters, leading to a
violent clash between them.
The fight, which began shortly after 3.30pm, lasted for about 45 minutes
before order was restored by the police.
The meeting of the party leaders, members of the National Working
Committee and the two contenders was still ongoing as of 9.30pm on
Monday.
Those at the meeting included the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai;
Senators Dino Melaye, Mohammed Ohiare and members of the John 0digie-
Oyegun-led National Working Committee.
Others at the meeting included some members of the Kogi State House of
Assembly.
An angry party leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter, blamed the party leadership for the crisis.
He said, “We could have handled this better. Why didn’t we call the two
men together earlier? Why would you decide on a candidate before calling
a meeting of the two parties?
“If you are Faleke, how will you feel when you first read about the
party’s decision in the papers before the party calls you for
discussions? There should be some respect for crying out loud.”
In the meantime, INEC said on Monday that it had received the request by
the APC to replace the late Audu’s name with that of Bello for the
supplementary governorship election in Kogi State on Saturday.
The commission’s Deputy Director, Publicity, Mr Nick Dazang, who
confirmed this in an interview with journalists, was however, silent on
when the commission received the request.
Dazang said, “They (APC) have sent the name of their replacement
candidate and he is the runner-up in their primary, that is Yahaya Bello,
to the commission.
“The commission is committed to conducting the two elections. That is why
in respect of Kogi, in spite of what happened, we came out with a public
notice, which invited the APC to submit its replacement candidate for the
election.”
Meanwhile, the suit filed by Wada, and his party, the PDP, seeking an
order declaring them as the winners of the November 21 governorship
election in the state, comes up for mention before a Federal High Court
in Abuja on Tuesday (today).
It was learnt that the suit filed on November 27, had been assigned to
Justice Gabriel Kolawole.
Our correspondent also learnt on Monday that the matter would only come
up for mention and not hearing on Tuesday as it remained unclear if
respondents to the suit had been served and responded to the suit.
The respondents to the suit are INEC, the Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the APC.
Wada and the PDP argued in their suit that in view of the death of the
APC candidate, Audu, they should be declared the winners of the election
as the surviving candidate with the majority of lawful votes cast during
the poll.
The plaintiffs also asked the court to compel the INEC to issue Wada with
a Certificate of Return.
In a separate application, the plaintiffs also asked the court to
restrain INEC from conducting the supplementary election scheduled for
Saturday.
The plaintiffs, through their counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), also asked the
court to issue an order of injunction restraining the APC from organising
or holding a fresh primary for the purpose of substituting their
candidate ahead of the supplementary or other election for the Kogi State
governorship for 2015.
They also asked the court to declare that APC could not organise and hold
a fresh primary for the purpose of the supplementary election in view of
the “immutable statutory timeliness provided by enabling sections of the
Electoral Act 2010 and the INEC timetable for the Kogi Governorship
election”.
They also asked the court to hold that the APC could not lawfully
nominate a candidate for the supplementary governorship election slated
for the December 5 without a valid and legally cognisable primary of the
APC conducted within the mandatory timeliness specified by the Electoral
Act.
The case has not been assigned to any judge.
In a related development, the APC youth movement in Kogi State on Monday
hailed the NWC of the party on its handling of the replacement for the
late Audu.
The Chairman of the APC youth group, Mr Samuel Davies, in a media
briefing in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, expressed the youths’ support
for the choice of Bello, who they said was the runner-up to the late Audu
during the state’s APC governorship primary.
He said, “In this scenario, the person, who came second in the validly
conducted primary of the APC, should be allowed to step into the shoes of
Prince Abubakar Audu to avoid legal land mines the PDP is already laying
ahead of the declaration of the final election result.”
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