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.”

Kolapo Olapoju