I won Kogi election, says Wada

Idris Wada, former governor of Kogi state, on Wednesday told the state election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja that he won the 2015 governorship election in the state.

Wada, who contested Wada the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spoke through Joe Agada, one of his witnesses, and the PDP chief agent at collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lokoja.

The witness was led in evidence by Chris Uche, counsel to Wada.

Agada said Wada won the election with 204,877 votes against 6,885 scored by Yahaya Bello, incumbent governor of the state.

He said Bello, whom the All Progressives Congress (APC) chose as its candidate in the supplementary election, could not inherit vote scored by late Audu Abubakar, who was until his death, the governorship candidate of APC in the election.

Agada said late Audu scored 240,867 on November 21 governorship election but died on November 22.

He further said the APC had no valid candidate for the supplementary election because at the time Bello was substituted, the statutory time allowed for substitution had elapsed.

Wada scored 199,514 on November 21 election, while he polled 5,363 in the supplementary election on December 5, 2015.

In the November poll, Audu scored 240, 867, while Bello who substituted him received 6,885 vote in the December election.

Agada said with the figure polled by Bello, he could not be said to have won the election.

The witness, under cross examination, also maintained that the vote cast for Audu remained void after he died.

Agada argued that Bello did not participate in the November election because he had no permanent voter card.

According to him, none of the candidates won at the time the election was declared inconclusive by INEC.

Meanwhile, the tribunal admitted as exhibits, Agada’s statement on oath, result sheets from the 2,548 polling units in the state, voter register and PDP’s protest letter to INEC.

Other documents admitted by the tribunal were the witness’s party membership card, voter card and letter of his appointment as PDP chief agent at INEC coalition centre.

Another witness, Samuel Oduntan, testified that he carried out a forensic analysis of the election material and discovered that there was over voting.

He, however, said that he could not remember the numbers of ballot papers he scanned, adding that he was the team leader of the forensic expert, who signed report presented to the court.