Kogi Election and Abubakar Audu’s death: What lawyers and the law say
With the death of Abubakar Audu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi State, a new legal battle may have ensued on the fate of the election. Mr. Audu was leading his closest challenger and incumbent governor, Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, by 41,353 votes. The Independent National Electoral Commission, however, declared the election inconclusive as possible votes from the 91 cancelled polling units (49,953) is higher than the margin between the two leading candidates. Mr. Audu would have eventually emerge winner after elections are held in the 91 polling units as the PDP candidate would have needed 100 per cent turnout and about all the votes for his party to emerge victor. However, before he could celebrate his potential victory, the APC candidate died, throwing the country into a unique constitutional crisis. Perhaps the closest constitutional section that relates to such a scenario is Section 181 which s...