‘I Did Nothing Wrong, I Acted In Accordance With The Law,’ Suspended Adamawa REC Writes IGP From Hiding

The suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner for Adamawa state, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, has risen in his own defence over his April 16 declaration of Aishatu Dahiru (Binani) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the recent governorship election in the state.

 

Yunusa-Ari, who has since been in hiding, said in an open letter to the Inspector General of Police Baba Alkali that his action was motivated by the desire to save the democratic process, and was in accordance with the powers conferred on him by the Electoral Act as the Chief Collation Officer in the state.

 

The embattled REC accused the two National Commissioners deployed to the state to supervise the April 15 supplementary election of usurping his responsibility as Resident Electoral Commissioner and acting under the influence of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri who was seeking re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

Fintiri was eventually declared winner of the election.

 

In the four-page letter dated April 20, Yunusa-Ari said that as the Chief Collation Officer in the state, he observed that results uploaded on the IREV portal were not signed by him and therefore were null and void.

 

He said the two INEC commissioners held a meeting with “my management staff in my absence and I did not know the outcome of the meeting, and there was a sudden move to tamper with the list of Collation Officers (COs) earlier released for the rerun election.”

 

Besides, he said the two commissioners were dishing out counter instructions to the ones he issued to staff on the collation of results following a security report “from the Commissioner of Police that Boko Haram insurgents from neighbouring states were recruited by some politicians to cart away sensitive materials and disrupt the elections.”

 

Continuing, he said: “In the evening, when I was preparing for state collation, all seats for ICCES (Interagency Consultative Committee on election Security) members were set, I got to the place and discovered that my name was replaced with that of the Administrative Secretary to take charge of collation.

 

“I then asked the National Commissioners to explain why they would exclude me from the process of collating results but there was no explanation. After some time, the National Commissioners declared that | was nowhere to be found.

 

“Immediately after the announcement, someone called me and informed me about the development. So around 1:00 am on Sunday 16th April, 2023, I came back to the collation centrer and saw some people sleeping, including the two National Commissioners.

 

“I addressed them that I was still the Resident Electoral Commissioner and that all stakeholders for the re-run election should return to the collation centre by 11:00 am on Sunday, 16th April, 2023.

 

“It is important to note that while the National Commissioners defiled the security concerns released by the Commissioner of Police, they purportedly did result collation at various locations by their self-appointed, unapproved and illegal collation officers.

 

“Meanwhile, I received reports that the collations at the various centres left much to be desired.

 

“So due to the pressure and the numerous calls I received from party agents and candidates of political parties threatening to cause mayhem for not having confidence in the collation of results at the various collation centres as directed by the National Commissioners, I looked inward and decided to call for all the results from the sixty-nine (69) polling units.

 

“To avert the impending danger of the delay in announcing the results of the supplementary elections, I received the authentic results submitted by the Presiding Officers (POs) from all the sixty-nine polling units and compared them with results that were uploaded on the IREV (INEC portal) and I realised that the results on the portal were different because the results on the INEC portal were not signed by me.”

 

Yunusa-Ari added that the action of the National Commissioners and threats by political parties over the process of collating results “created an atmosphere of violence that almost marred the election, most of the stakeholders were scared and refused to continue with the election process, including the Returning Officer (RO).”

 

He said he even organised a meeting with the chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council, Mr. Bello Babajo, who assured him of reaching out to all the political parties to calm down the tension and to allow the process to be concluded swiftly.

 

“It was based on this, that I compiled all the polling unit results and declared the winner of the election based on the highest number of valid votes scored by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani,” he said.

 

“The breakdown was the valid votes scored by the two leading candidates in the supplementary election using the results from the polling units as collated into all relevant Forms EC8B, C,D and E respectively by properly and legally appointed and recognised Collation Officers and my humble self as Adamawa State Chief Collation Officer and Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

 

“Prior to the declaration, there was an intelligence report made available to me that the two National Commissioners were at the Government House, Yola, at 8:31pm on 15/04/2023 and held a meeting with the State Governor, Mr. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.”

 

Copies of the letter were sent to the INEC Chairman, Director General, DSS and the National Security Adviser, although the content suggests that it might have been meant for the Commission.

 

The letter is the first communication from the suspended REC since the April 16 incident.