PDP wants Wada declared as winner of Kogi guber polls

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declare  its candidate and incumbent governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, as the winner of November 21 governorship polls in the State after the death of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

PDP insisted that with the death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has no valid candidate in the election, leaving INEC with no other lawful option than to declare  Wada as the winner of the election.

The party said in a communique issued by the PDP’s national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, at the end of its emergency national caucus meeting on Wednesday that the decision of INEC to allow APC replace Audu with another candidate was influenced by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami while noting that the decision of the Commission contravenes provisions of the constitution and electoral act.

“The that the leadership of INEC as presently constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has demonstrated that it is incapable of neutrality and as such cannot be vested with the conduct of the Kogi governorship supplementary election as well as the December 5, 2015 Bayelsa governorship election.,” PDP alleged in the communique.

It states further: “As a result, caucus demands the immediate resignation of the chairman and all national commissioners of INEC to pave the way for a new non-partisan commission to conduct the forthcoming elections.

“Caucus also demands the immediate resignation of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami for deliberately misleading INEC into arriving at the unconstitutional decision of allowing APC to substitute its candidate in the inconclusive election.

The PDP said that as a critical stakeholder, it will immediately challenge what it termed unlawful and unconstitutional decision by INEC in the court  “in order to save the nation’s democracy from imminent collapse.”