Kogi governorship tussle: APGA calls for fresh election

The All Progressives Grand Alliance and its candidate in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State, Goodman Akwu, have called for a fresh poll in the state.
Akwu made the call during his cross-examination at the resumed hearing of a petition filed by him and his party before the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Monday.
The petitioner was cross-examined by Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN), counsel to Governor Yahaya Bello, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the election.
He said: “The tribunal is our last hope.
“We are not in conformity with what happened in Kogi.
“We are calling for a fresh rerun election that will be free and fair.
“I don’t know how one starts a race with a person and at the middle it was turned to a relay race with another person.
“So, we are calling for a fresh election with a candidate that will fulfil the requirement of the law.”
Akwu also told the tribunal that the nomination of each candidate at the party level was brought to a close on September 22, 2015, with any substitution to be effected on or before October 7.
Akwu said the election of Bello did not follow the due process as provided by the law.
He said: “I agreed that some of the documents I filed were accessed from the Independent National Electoral Commission website.
“I was also not present when the All Progressives Congress conducted its primary election.
“The governorship election started November 21 and ended December 5 and it is the name of the parties that were on the ballot papers in both elections and not the names of the candidates,” he said.
Akwu had told the tribunal that there was no place in the world where a candidate could inherit votes he was not part of the process.
He said the process in which Bello became the governor was a strange process that needed to be challenged.
The APGA candidate called on the tribunal to do justice to his petition and closed his case.
The tribunal Chairman, Justice Halima Muhammad, adjourned the matter till April 12 for the defence to open its case.
NAN.