The heightened tension in Kogi State that followed the last governorship election has resulted in the arrest of Abiodun Faleke, the factional candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his running mate, Mohammed Audu.
Faleke and Audu were arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) after they honoured an invitation by the DSS to appear before its office in Abuja.
Faleke was the running mate to late Prince Audu Abubakar, but the death of Audu changed the political equation in the state.
Audu died hours after casting his vote at the election of November 21, 2015, but the death was announced minutes after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election as inconclusive.
While Governor Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has sought the court to declare him winner since he is the surviving candidate in the election with the next highest votes after Audu, Faleke, on his own, has maintained that he remains the governor-elect arguing that he should be the one to inherit Audu’s votes.
The APC, on its own, picked Yahaya Bello as Audu’s replacement. All efforts to get Faleke to support Bello had proven abortive as Faleke has been at the tribunal seeking to be declared the winner of the election and be sworn in on January 27 being the date for inauguration of a new government in the state.
The argument presented by APC for picking Bello is that he came second in the primary election that produced Audu as candidate of the party in the election.
It was learnt that supporters of Faleke have since vowed to ensure that their benefactor was sworn-in as governor threatening that violence would erupt if he was not sworn-in on the scheduled date.
Director of Media and Publicity of Audu/Faleke Campaign Organization, Hon. Duro Meseko, confirmed the invitation.
He said it was disheartening that Faleke could be arrested at a critical time in the history of the state.
