By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
The late Prince Abubakar Audu’s running mate in the inconclusive governorship election in Kogi state, James Faleke, has vowed to collect the mandate, saying he carried a moral burden to defend Audu’s mandate at the polls.
Faleke, who made the vow yesterday while addressing members of the All Progressives congress (APC) in Lokoja, said he was the only person that could benefit from the mandate and victory of the late Audu.
He said: “I am here before you today in all humility and in deep sorrow over the unfortunate incident that happened last week; a state with so much potentials but which has continued to fall victim under impotent and incompetent leadership since the trail blazing performance of our leader, late Prince Abubakar Audu; a man of style and competence who combined quality with humaneness, a man who detested injustice and oppression throughout his eventful lifetime, a man loved by our people for his philanthropy and general candour.
“So sad and unfortunate that just about when the celebration of our hard won victory began, where we defeated an incumbent government, a darkness was cast on the family, the state and indeed the nation with the loss to the cold hands of death of Prince Abubakar Audu.
“As if waiting for the demise of this great and illustrious son of the land, the reactionaries pounced in on the situation and made fruitless attempts at truncating the process that ordinarily should have led to a smooth transition of power from the visionless and clueless handlers of our state to a new path of rescuing the state.”
Faleke, who said he stood a beneficiary of late Audu’s primary victory by virtue of Section 187 of the 1999 constitution, berated Yahaya Bello for wanting to benefit from the party that he (Yahaya) worked against at the polls.
