Tribunal dismisses APGA’s petition against Gov. Bello for legal incompetence

The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal for Kogi State on Friday dismissed the All Progressives Grand Alliance petition for being legally incompetent.
The tribunal Chairman, Justice Halima Muhammad, also dismissed the petition because APGA did not join the Independent National Electoral Commission and the All Progressives Congress in the suit.
Muhammad said Hon. James Faleke, the deputy governorship candidate to late Abubakar Audu, did not inform to his party that he had withdrawn his candidature before election.
She said the only letter Faleke wrote was to INEC, which made the process incomplete.
The tribunal chairman said Faleke still remains the deputy governorship candidate to Yahaya Bello as at the time the election was conducted.
APGA had challenged the return of Bello, contending that he was not qualified to be the party’s governorship candidate.
The party urged the tribunal to nullify Bello’s election because his nomination by his party was strange to the law of the land.
The party also said Bello did not score the majority of the lawful votes cast during the election.
It said Bello scored 6,885 votes in the December 5, 2015 supplementary polls.