Hudu Yunusa Ari, the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, has explained reasons he announced Aishatu Ahmed Dahiru Binani of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of April 15 supplementary poll.
Hudu, a lawyer, had announced the results of 69 polling units when results of 10 local government areas had not been collated.
That earned him a suspension as Binani embraced defeat after Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of the rerun.
He had since gone on exile from where he wrote an explanatory letter to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Baba Usman Alkali who had ordered a manhunt against him.
HUDU EXPLAINS
According to Daily Trust, Hudu, in the letter, told IGP he announced the result to avert the breakdown of peace in the state.
Also copied in the letter was the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu and the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
Ari claimed he acted within the ambit of the law to avert impending danger of the delay in announcing the results, especially because he realised the results brought by the presiding officers from the 69 polling units, which he did not sign, differed from those uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
Ari listed the attempts to replace him as the collation officer with the administrative secretary, threats by candidates to cause mayhem, commissioners appointing ‘illegal collation officers’, and his house being surrounded by policemen from the Government House as some of the risks he faced in the course of the election.
“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 APC.
“I had the breakdown of 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 the 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 April 15, 2023 and held a meeting with Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri,” he wrote.
Hudu said immediately after the declaration, some PDP supporters attacked two INEC commissioners and the returning officer for allegedly failing to deliver Governor Fintiri, adding that “it was alleged that the people beaten in the purported video wanted to subvert the rerun election in Adamawa State and undermine the will of the people as expressed through the ballot.”
