James Faleke, the running mate to Audu Abubakar, the late winner of the of the Kogi State governorship election, has revealed that he was not invited to the swearing-in of Yahaya Bello, who was brought in to as replacement to Audu.
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Speaking in an interview with Channels TV, Faleke, who turned down the All Progressives Congress’ offer to continue as Bello’s deputy governor, lampooned the National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun saying for failing to do the right thing following Abubakar’s death.
He went on to debunk reports that the party was making efforts to unite the warring sides, insisting that nobody from the party’s national or state leadership had reached out to him.
He said: “I am speaking before Nigerians and I am making it very clear that nobody reached out to me. Nobody from our party’s national secretariat or the state secretariat of our party ever reached out to me on this issue.
“The only time they every reached out to me was on December 31… when the chairman of our party announced the decision of the National Working Committee to all of us to say the NWC had adopted Alhaji Yahaya Bello as the governorship candidate for the December 5 election.
“Thereafter, there was no consultation until today. I want to make it clear that the party chairman, Chief John Oyegun, that we saw as a father has decided to champion a cause that is anti-people. That is why we were not invited (for the inauguration).
“For me I see what has happened in the party as a civilian coup d’état. It is a civilian coup d’état because if such a situation happens in the military, those behind it will face the firing squad.
“It was Alhaji Yahaya Bello that worked against the party. He took the party to court before the election, took our late leader, Audu to court before the election and he lost his polling unit to PDP, lost his ward to PDP and lost his local government area to PDP.
“And I made it clear that day (during the meeting) that if 50 per cent of us seated in that hall had lost our polling units, lost our wards and our local governments, there would have been nothing for us to celebrate.”
Faleke also revealed that he had requested to Oyegun that the APC sue the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring the Saturday, November 21, 2015 governorship inconclusive.
