Postpone Kogi governorship election, APM candidate tells INEC

The gubernatorial candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Saturday’s election, Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, has called for the postponement of the exercise following the restoration of the party’s ticket to the ballot by the Federal High Court Abuja on Tuesday.

He also alleged that the National Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, should resign as “he has lost the legitimacy to conduct the exercise.”

According to him, the INEC boss has been “compromised” and should, therefore, resign from office.

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The APM had challenged the disqualification of its ticket by the electoral body on the ground that its deputy governorship candidate was not validly nominated.

But in her ruling on Tuesday, the presiding judge, Justice Evelyn Maha, directed INEC not to conduct the Kogi poll without the APM on the ballot.

Following that ruling, Dantalle has now called for the postponement of the election as he said he had not had enough time to campaign.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, the APM flag bearer said: “Nothing will go wrong if Yakubu resigns as the chairman of INEC and a God-fearing person appointed to conduct the election.”

He added: “The election should be postponed because as it is I was shut out of the campaign. In a few days, the campaign will close. This is what they wanted to do.

“I was stifled, I couldn’t move under the same man (Yakubu). He tied my hands and feet and I couldn’t move. Is that man worthy of conducting the election? The answer is no.”

The gubernatorial candidate said he would need about three weeks for the campaign to enable him to reach out to the people of the state.