The suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari has revealed that he actually announced the results of 69 polling units in the April 15 supplementary election due to security pressure.
The REC had sparked controversy within the state and country when he unilaterally declared the candidate of the APC, Aishatu Dahiru Binani, winner of the state governorship elections.
The REC had sneaked into the collation centre two hours before the scheduled time for the resumption of collation to the rescheduled poll on April 16 to declare Binani winner. The action prompted his suspension by INEC with the police mandated to investigate him.
However, Ari in a letter to the Inspector General of Police explaining his part in the controversial announcement, copies which were sent to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) said he acted within the ambit of the law to avert impending danger associated with any delay in announcing the results.
He also claimed he realised that 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.
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He also alleged attempts to replace him as the collation officer with the administrative secretary, threats to cause mayhem, commissioners appointing ‘illegal collation officers’, and his house being surrounded by policemen from Government House as some of the risks he faced in during the poll.
He said: “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 said that 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.”