Hassan Omale Atayoma, representing Ankpa, Omala and Olamaboro Federal Constituency, is now a happy man set for full legislative business after his victory at the Court of Appeal. He speaks with the The Congresswatch and some media organizations on his judicial experience and also on the controversial decision of the APC concerning the Kogi Governorship election.
“I don’t think I see any justice in what they are doing. Yes I am an Igala man; they were saying we don’t want power shift; this time we have agreed to power shift because it is natural. But why don’t they give it to Faleke? “
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Que: Could you assess your journey to the House and react to the Appeal Court decision in your case?
After the 28th of April 2015 election, that is the general election, I was declared the winner of the federal constituency of Ankpa, Omala and Olamaboro of Kogi state. There and then my opponent took me to the Tribunal in Lokoja. And having gone through all the evidences against me, the case was dismissed from the Tribunal and he then decided to come to the Court of Appeal, for an Appeal against the judgment of the lower court. I am happy to tell you today that the grounds they came to court for an Appeal against me were dismissed outright. My challenger talked about primary election; primary election was the thing that was conducted by my party and I had evidences, letters, exhibits that I submitted to the Tribunal and to the court of Appeal. On that basis, it was found that there was a primary election during our nomination; so that was dismissed. Second, about 17 or 12 polling units were cancelled as a result of his violence and he came to the court so that the court can give him those areas for a re-run, but the court equally dismissed that again. So the decision of the lower court that is the Tribunal was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Que: So how does that make you feel?
Yeah, I feel so happy and I believe that I will now have the time to concentrate on my legislative job because all this time that I have been going to the Tribunal and to the Court of Appeal, there has been a lot of distraction of attention.
Que: Now that you can concentrate, what exactly are your agenda for your people?Â
I am an indigene of where I am representing, and I know their problems and that is why they elected me to represent them. If you can recall, I moved a motion on the connection of electricity to the three (3) local Government Areas that I am representing. I know that is one of the major problems they have because anywhere there is energy, there is power, there is always growth of businesses; there is avoidance of criminality and our youths will be engaged. It will also give room for employment; that is the beginning. Second, it was my promise, an agreement between me and my people, that there is need for employment; when you talk about employment, it is not only working in government ministries or departments; self employment is very important. So I intend as well to establish skill acquisition centers in the three (3) local Governments so that our youths can be trained, gainfully equipped and be self-employed. I remember during the Sallah period, I had to visit the General Hospital in my area, visit the prison service and as we are talking now I am constructing a borehole for the prison service. I was able to pay the bills of those who were sick and were on bail on the day that I visited and I intend to visit them frequently. The condition of the hospital is too bad, and I intend to meet the State Government on how best to improve that condition, put more doctors and more nurses in the hospital.
Que: Ok, that’s on a personal level. Now to the general issue, honourable, looking at the Kogi election saga, we will like to take your reaction regarding the decision of INEC, declaring the election inconclusive and the subsequent action of the APC, denying James Faleke the ticket.
Let us take an example from my judgment, my opponent was saying that the election was supposed to be declared inconclusive because certain number of persons in some polling units, out of violence, did not vote. The court now told my opponent that it is not possible for you to establish that those who didn’t vote, if you bring them together that all of them will vote for you. And before you will be able to testify that those you are claiming that have not voted are really ready to cast their votes for you, they have to come with their permanent voters’ card, that is, PVC, and be identified on the voters register. For instance in Kogi State, election was done, and somebody was leading, then we are talking of about 25,000 persons who have PVC, let’s say 25,000 persons, if all of them have PVC and all of them vote for PDP and you add to the votes of PDP that you have at present, PDP wouldn’t still lead APC. So why didn’t INEC declare the result and declare the winner of the election? That is the confusion we had; if INEC had gone ahead to declare the result of the elections instead of saying it was inconclusive, even if Audu dies, Faleke would have taken over, but to the best of my ability and knowledge, I think Faleke is the heir to throne.
Que: So all these shenanigans by the party or what the party is doing, apparently you are not in support?
The party is trying to maneuver. That is my judgment.
Que: Doesn’t it seem as if the party is trying to at least shield themselves of PDP taking them to court? Mind you the running mate Faleke wasn’t elected during the primary election; he is just a running mate and that has been the argument?
In the electoral law, you don’t benefit from an election when you didn’t participate; yes, we are talking about primaries. Did Bello participate in the election? His own calls for litigation too. The best thing I would advise the party to do is to urge INEC, because we have advised the National chairman to take INEC to court so that the result of the election can be declared but he said he won’t want to do that, and that is why we advise that Faleke should go, because I think if it is the court that gave the order to INEC to declare the result, I think there won’t be any challenges in anyway, but a situation where you want to maneuver something for somebody who has already left the party for some time and come through the back door to benefit from what people have suffered, I don’t think I see any justice in what they are doing. Yes I am an Igala man, they were saying we don’t want power shift; this time we have agreed to power shift because it is natural. But why don’t they give it to Faleke so that we can start from there, in order to avoid grudges? Faleke knows the steps that we have taken to be able to win this election, and the moment he is declared, he knows who and who suffered to be able to have this victory. For somebody who has campaigned for PDP, declared as gubernatorial candidate for SDP and at the end of the day, you believe that he is the best candidate to be submitted to INEC, then there is likely to be disloyalty among party men and women.
