With the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claiming ignorance of the death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the controversy over the Kogi State governorship election deepened yesterday. Audu was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state.

According to the INEC, though it had heard the news of Audu’s death, it was yet to be officially notified of the development. It is the responsibility of the party to immediately notify the commission about the death of its candidate. While the APC has announced Audu’s passing, it has not formally informed INEC.

The party has also not made any request as to whether to be granted some days to conduct fresh primaries to pick a new candidate, or to now adopt its running mate in the poll, James Faleke, as its substantive candidate or even to demand an outright cancellation of the election.

Nick Dazang, the Deputy Director of Publicity of the commission in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said: “APC has to do proper notification and accompany it with the certificate of death issued by a medical doctor.

“Once the commission is notified, it will look at relevant clauses of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the Electoral Act 2010 as amended and also the constitution of APC itself,” he said.

Credit: Guardian