I Remain Kogi’s Governor-Elect, Says Faleke…As Supporters Turn APC Headquarters Into Battlefield

Supporters of James Abiodun Faleke, a deputy governorship candidate for APC in the inconclusive Kogi guber polls and those of Yahaya Bello, the runner-up in the party’s primaries that produced the late Abubakar Audu, engaged one another in a free-for-all fight at the party’s headquarters in Abuja today.

Before the intervention of security forces, comprising a detachment of army, police, department of Security Services and paramilitary agencies like the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the three major tribes in Kogi; Igala, Igbira and Okun broke into camps and unleashed terror on each other while the APC National Working Committee was meeting with the leading candidates on the replacement of late Abubakar Audu for the December 5 supplementary election.

Stones and other weapons were freely hauled at each other with many sustaining various degrees of injuries, while cars and other property were damaged by the rampaging supporters that arrived the APC headquarters in buses.

Trouble started when Faleke, the deputy governorship candidate to Audu for the November 21 governorship poll stormed the headquarters with retinue of his supporters, grounding vehicular movement at the Blantyre street office of the APC chanting pro -Faleke and war songs.

The Bello group who had stationed themselves at the other end of the street responded with anti Faleke songs, resulting into a crisis that degenerated into clashes that almost overwhelmed security agencies posted to control the rampaging crowd.

As the situation degenerated into an uncontrollable situation with weapons used freely by the protesters, several of them sustained serious injuries with three bleeding protesters rushed out of the venue, cars including the one belonging to an AIT reporter were badly damaged.

It took the arrival of the reinforcement of a special mobile police squad from the Police Force Headquarters and a team of military officers to push back the rival warring groups who retreated to ends of the street, waiting for the final outcome of the long hour meeting.

After few minutes of the arrival of the special force, the situation was brought under control, roads were barricaded, subjecting all the passers-by and other persons who have something to do at the headquarters to a thorough screening and scrutiny before allowing them to pass or gain entrance into the complex.

When the NWC meeting finally ended, it was obvious that it was stalemated as Faleke who addressed journalists rejected the decision of the party to endorse Bello as the candidate for this weekend’s supplementary election, insisting that he remains the governor-elect.

According to him: “I got the invitation for the meeting through text messages and letters. The issue of Kogi State was paramount in the mind of our national leaders especially our national chairman, who wanted a solution to the situation.

“But, after meeting for about two hours, we discovered that the meeting we were invited for was just a mere briefing instead of meeting we should be invited to deliberate on the way forward for the party. We were only briefed on the position of the party that they have nominated Alhaji Yahaya Bello as candidate for the party.

“We however made it clear that as political family of the late Abubakar Audu, we are not going to accept the decision. I told the chairman in clear terms that I have submitted a letter to INEC this morning distancing myself from that position and that I don’t want to be associated with the decision of the party to pair me with Bello because I am already governor-elect.

“I also told the chairman that as Kogi state political family, we are not taking part in the supplementary election, my name cannot be submitted because I was not consulted in the first place and that the governor-elect cannot then become another deputy governorship candidate.

“I want to make it very clear that Yahaya Bello did not take part in all our political party process. The INEC wants to conduct election in 91 polling units out of 2445 polling units or thereabout which he did not participate.

“We have made it very clear that if they go ahead to conduct the election, it will be challenged in the court of law since I have pulled out of it. We are certainly going to challenge it and we will not be talking to Nigerians if the party has toed the path of honour of going to court to challenge INEC but they decided otherwise that the party will not go to court. I told them if the party cannot go to court, we have taken it upon ourselves to defend our rights to challenge that decision.”