A Betrayal of Trust - James Faleke Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling Upholding Gov. Bello's Election

Posted by Odinaka on Tue 20th Sep, 2016 - tori.ng

In an official statement, James Faleke has reacted to the judgement of the Supreme Court upholding the election of Yahaya Bello as governor of the state.

We reported it few hours ago that the Supreme Court sitting today in the federal capita, Abuja, affirmed the election of Yahaya Bello as the executive Governor of Kogi State.

In a unanimous judgement delivered in Abuja on Tuesday, the court dismissed the claim of James Faleke that he was the rightful candidate for the position.

In an official statement by Duro Meseko, the deputy governorship candidate in the November 21, 2015 election in Kogi State, James Faleke, has reacted to the judgement of the Supreme Court upholding the election of Yahaya Bello as governor of the state.

Faleke said it would have amounted to a “betrayal of the sacred trust of the people who reposed implicit confidence in the Audu/Faleke ticket not to have defended the sanctity of their vote up till the Apex court level”.

“We have heard the judgement handed down by the Supreme Court jurists upholding Yahaya Bello as governor. We shall wait for the full text of the judgement to know why they came to that conclusion.

“But let it be stated here that we have no regrets challenging the declaration of our election as inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). What we did was to defend the votes cast for Audu/Faleke by the over 240,000 electorates on November 21, 2015.

“The people voted for us as candidates not APC because they believe in the kind of leadership we offer to provide for them during our campaigns. It would therefore amount to crass betrayal of the trust of these electorates not to have defended their votes till the end,” he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Faleke said as a member of the House of Representatives, he would be glad to read details of the judgement so as to “know which areas of our nation’s jurisprudence require urgent review.”

He urged all his supporters to remain calm, peaceful and law abiding and thanked them for their support.