Why I was absent at Bello’s inauguration – Faleke

James Faleke, the deputy governor-elect of Kogi state, has explained why he shunned the swearing-in ceremony held on Wednesday, January 27.

In an interview with Channels TV Faleke said that he had no reason to attend the event because he was challenging the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare the November 21 governorship election inconclusive in court.

Faleke slammed the All Progressives Congress (APC) for choosing Yahaya Bello as a replacement for the late Prince Abubakar Audu, describing it as a coup against people of Kogi state.

When asked why he was absent at the inauguration, the APC chieftain revealed that nobody had reached out to him on this issue.

“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,” he said.

The Punch reports that Faleke also criticized John Oyegun, the APC’s national chairman of the party, for failing to do what he considered the right thing following Audu’s death.

“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),” he said.

Faleke noted that he would not settle the problem out of court until Bello agrees to resign as the governor.

“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,” he said.

Accusing Bello of working against the party, Faleke said: “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.”

Meanwhile, the newly inaugurated governor, Yahaya Bello, has promised the state civil servants that he will pay salaries as soon as possible.

While delivering his inauguration speech, Bello stressed that he would operate an open policy, fighting corruption and impunity.