On Monday, the Independent National Electoral Commission instructed Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Adamawa State, to avoid the state office of the commission.
INEC’s activity was started on Yunusa-Ari’s statement of the All Reformists Congress governorship up-and-comer, Aisha Dahiru, famously referred to as Binani as the lead representative choose in Saturday’s valuable political race.
In a letter signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, the Secretary to the Commission, the commission also prohibited the REC from visiting the office.
On Monday, the People’s Democratic Party governors demanded that the REC be prosecuted as the action continued to draw criticism.
However, on Monday, Binani filed a suit in the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order to prevent INEC and its agents from taking any further steps toward the declaration of the election winner while her court case is being decided. Yunusa-Ari had announced Binani as the winner of the supplementary polls while the results were being compiled, causing confusion in the state and consternation across the nation.
Before the declaration, Binani was in second place behind PDP Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who had a lead of 31,249 votes.
Fintiri received 421, 524 more votes than Binani, who received 390, 275.
Nonetheless, Fintiri couldn’t be announced the victor of the Walk 18 governorship political decision by the state returning official, Teacher Mohammed Mele, of the Division of English and Phonetics, College of Maiduguri, Borni State, in light of the fact that the edge of lead didn’t surpass the quantity of dropped votes in 69 surveying units.
Yunusa-Ari’s activity was censured by resistance groups and ex-INEC public magistrates as unusual and for certain Nigerians saying the episode mirrored the abnormality that portrayed the overall races.
However, the INEC invalidated the declaration and furthermore called the REC who usurped the obligations of the returning official and different authorities to Abuja.
However, the ongoing strike by aviation workers, which has shut down airport operations across the country, prevented the beleaguered REC and his colleagues from appearing before a committee of the commission on Monday in Abuja.
The PUNCH learned that the aviation strike prevented all INEC national commissioners, who would make up the committee members, from obtaining return flights to Abuja.
It was discovered that the senior INEC authorities, who had partaken in the rerun surveys in various states, were returning by street and expected at the INEC base camp, Abuja, on Tuesday (today).
However, Oriaran-Anthony explained in a letter to Yunusa-Ari dated April 17, 2023, that the commission’s administrative secretary in Adamawa State had been given the task of overseeing the state’s INEC office.
“I hereby convey the commission’s decision that you (Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari), Resident Electoral Commissioner, Adamawa State should stay away from the commission’s office in Adamawa State until further notice,” the letter read. The administrative secretary has been instructed to immediately assume full responsibility for INEC, Adamawa State.