Tribunal Strikes out Wada's Bid to Unseat Bello as Governor

The immediate past Governor of Kogi state, Idris Wada on Tuesday failed in his bid to remove his successor, Governor Yahaya Bello, from office.

 

Wada, who was the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the November 21 governorship election in the state, had filed a petition before the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, demanding that he be declared the winner of the November 21 and December 5 election, stressing that he polled the highest number of votes.

The former governor argued that Bello only polled 6,805 votes in the ‎December 5 supplementary election and could not possibly inherit the 240,867 votes polled by the original candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, late Prince Abubakar Audu in the November 21, 2015 election.

 

Wada, in his petition, also contended with the nomination of Bello as a replacement for the original candidate of the APC, the late Audu.

 

But the Justice Hamima Mohammed-led tribunal sitting in Abuja ruled that Wada “lacked locus standi” to question the nomination of his APC counterpart, Bello, adding that the nomination and sponsorship of Bello as a governorship candidate was an internal affair.

 

The tribunal held that only those who participated in the party’s primary election has the legal right to inquire into the nomination of the party’s candidate.