Adamawa electoral heist: Suspended REC writes IGP from hiding, says he did nothing wrong

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.” Nation