Yahaya Bello picked to succeed Audu as APC governorship candidate in Kogi

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has confirmed that the All Progressives Congress, APC has submitted the name of Yahyah Bello as its candidate for replacement of Abubakar Audu in the Kogi State supplementary election due for Saturday.

Audu, the candidate of APC in the substantive election held on 21 November had died as the results of the election were being announced the next day. He was leading his closest challenger, Idris Wada who is also the incumbent governor of the State by 41,000-vote lead before his death.

The election was declared inconclusive by INEC which also asked APC to nominate another candidate for the supplementary election to conclude the process.

But the death of Audu has thrown up a constitutional crises, with the deceased’s running mate, James Faleke claiming to be the right inheritors of the votes while APC seemed to have settled for Yahyah who came second in the APC gubernatorial primaries.

Supporters of the two contenders clashed at the Wuse, Abuja headquarters of the party on Monday as they waited for the party’s decision.

A stakeholders’ meeting being attended by Falake and Bello and other heavyweights of the party like the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai was still ongoing as at the time of writing this story.

The party is expected to unveil Bello as its choice for replacement of Audu at the end of the meeting.

The meeting is however a mere formality as Nick Dazang, the INEC Deputy Director of Publicity said on Monday that APC has already sent the name of Bello as replacement for Audu in the supplementary election.

“They have sent the name of their replacement candidate, the second runner-up in their primaries, that is Yahaya Bello, to the commission,” Dazang said.