SAN FRANCISCO, February 09, (THEWILL) – One-time Deputy Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Mr. Simeon Achuba was on Tuesday afternoon sworn in as the Deputy Governor of the State, taking up the position rejected by Hon. James Faleke, who was the running mate to late Abubakar Audu in the inconclusive November 21 election.
Audu, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was already cruising to victory until he died the same time his election was declared inconclusive. His runner-up in the APC primaries, Alhaji Yahaya Bello was picked by the party as his replacement for the December 5 rerun election. But Faleke kicked against this and refused to be sworn-in as Bello’s deputy after he eventually won the election.
The new Deputy Governor, Achuba was sworn in at the Government House in Lokoja, the state capital, after having been earlier screened by the State House of Assembly in response to Bello’s request that he be screen as his deputy.
Achuba hails from Ibaji local government area of Kogi state and was a former deputy governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.
Meanwhile, journalists who rushed to cover the inauguration were barred from gaining entrance to the Government House on the instruction of the Governor. They were told by gun-wielding security operatives that the inauguration was not meant to be a public function, that ‘If the programme was meant for coverage, it would have been held at the Township Stadium”.
This event comes two weeks after Bello became the first governor in the country to take the oath of office without a deputy. James Faleke, running mate to the late Abubakar Audu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the November 21 election, had rejected the offer of the party to be Bello’s deputy. The APC replaced Audu with Bello in the supplementary election, which Faleke was opposed to.
It would be recalled Faleke had faulted the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to declare the substantive election inconclusive, arguing that he ought to have been declared governor-elect, since Audu was leading in the election.
He filed a suit at the governorship election tribunal, challenging the national electoral body for declaring the poll inconclusive, and insisting that the election was won by the late Audu, hence he should be declared Governor.
