New
insight into the circumstances surrounding the death of Prince Audu
Abubakar, has emerged, but how factual it is, remains to be ascertained.
The Kogi State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate
was reported to have given up the ghost on Sunday, a day after the
gubernatorial election.
However, The Nation reports that Prince Audu actually died on Saturday, shortly after casting his vote at Ogbonicha in Ofu Local Government Area.
The report, based on information gotten from a source within the APC,
said Audu’s family members deceived the public about the time of his
death.
Audu was said to have taken ill a day before the election, and
a doctor was called to take care of him pending the time he would be
taken for proper medical attention.
The late politician was purportedly found lying on the floor ‘with
blood covering his face’ by a member of his domestic staff at his
country home in Ogbonicha on Friday.
The ‘highly placed’ party source was quoted to have said: “Audu was
found in his room soaked in blood. In fact, they had to use razor blade
to tear his clothes before it was removed from his body. A doctor was
called in and he was attended to. He was to be taken to the hospital
immediately, but he said he was alright and would be able to vote the
next day after which he could be taken to the hospital.
“As you know, Audu voted on election day, but his health began to deteriorate. He died around 5pm on Saturday.”
“The point is that Mohammed (Audu’s son) was at the collating centre
in Lokoja when the results were being announced, and later INEC decided
to say that the election was inconclusive, even when the total number of
collected PVCs in the 19 local government areas that the commission
said there will be a supplementary election cannot invalidate APC’s
victory.
“A lot must be explained here. INEC said there are 49,000 names on
the voters register in the affetcted 91 polling units, but failed to
mention that it is only 25,000 of those that have collected the PVCs.
That number cannot upturn APC’s victory, assuming that the PDP wins in
all the places, which we all know is impossible. Somebody is up to
something sinister here and we will not let it go unchallenged.”