Suspended Resident Electoral
Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari has said that he declared
the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) winner of the governorship
election in the State to save the democratic process.

Ari said he acted in accordance
with the powers conferred on him by the Electoral Act as the Chief Collation
Officer in Adamawa State.

 

This was contained in a four-page
letter he wrote to the Inspector General of Police from his hiding.

 

The embattled REC accused the two
National Commissioners deployed to the State to supervise the April 15
supplementary election of collecting bribe from Governor Ahmadu Fintiri to
declare him winner of the governorship election in Adamawa State.

 

In the letter, which was
hand-dated April 20, the embattled REC also accused the two National
Commissioners of usurping his responsibility as Resident Electoral
Commissioner.

 

He denied any wrong doing in
declaring the candidate of the APC, Aishatu Dahiru (Binani) winner of the
governorship election saying he acted within the responsibility vested on him
by the Electoral Act as the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state.

 

He 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 null and void.

 

The letter titled: “Report of the
conduct of supplementary elections held on the 15th April, 2023 in Adamawa
state”, a copy of which was obtained by The Nation was stamped received in the
IGP office on the same day.

 

Although the letter, which was
copied to the the INEC Chairman, Director General, DSS and the National
Security Advisor was addressed to the Inspector General of Police, the content
is suggestive of the fact that it may have been meant for the Commission.

 

The letter is the first
communication of the suspended REC since he declared Binani winner of the
election.

 

INEC had said that it was not
aware of the where about of the Hudu Yunusa-Ari as he did not respond to summon
to come to Abuja to explain his actions and did not return any of the calls
placed to him.

 

The letter reads “You may wish to
know that there is no better time than now to update the Independent Electoral
Commission (INEC) and all concerned Nigerians on the conduct of the 15th April,
2023 supplementary elections in Adamawa State.

 

“It is against this background
that you sent two National Commissioners, Dr. Baba Bila and Prof. Abdullahi
Zuru to assist me in the conduct of the re-run elections in Adamawa State. |
hope this was a confirmation that you wanted the Commission to conduct the
elections to reflect the collective aspirations of the people of the State.

 

“At the end of the day, the
actions of the two National Commissioners left much to be desired. The
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.

 

“On the day of election, before
the sensitive and non-sensitive materials were to be distributed across the
affected Local Governments and polling units, I received 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.

 

“According to the report, the
sensitive materials were not expected to leave the INEC office on the 14th
April, 2023 until the day of election, which was on the 15th April, 2023 as
shown in the attached photocopy of the letter from the Commissioner of Police,
Adamawa State as Annex Al and A2.

 

“After the first letter from the
Police Commissioner, another letter came from Police updating me that the
security threat is still high as some Local Government Collation centers will
be attacked and as such the Police advise that all collations from Registration
Areas (RAs) and Local Government centers should be done at the State level,
which was the INEC headquarters Annex, Adamawa State. Attached is the photocopy
of the second letter from the Commissioner of Police as Annex B.

 

“In line with the security
advice, I directed the Electoral Officers (EOs) and Local Government Collation
officers to ensure that Results Collations should be done at a centralized INEC
ANNEX OFFICE IN DOUGIREI, Yola

 

“However, at this point, the
National Commissioners quickly and secretly gave out conflicting counter
directives to the EOs that collation should be done in the Local Government
Areas with an instruction that NEW LGA COLLATION OFFICERS which | am not aware
of will be sent to them.

 

“This is without my knowledge or
authorization as the Resident Electoral Commissioner as recognized by laws
establishing INEC and the Electoral act.

 

“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 center
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 center 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 centers 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 centers 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 realized that the results on the portal were
different because the results on the INEC portal were not signed by me”.

 

Speaking further, he said  “On 15/04/2023 at about 10:00pm, armed
Policemen from the Government House came to my house and placed me under House
Arrest to prevent me from conducting my legitimate duties.

 

“It took the intervention of the
Commissioner of Police who sent Mobile Policemen to my house to save the day
and when they heard that a call was made to the CP, the Policemen trom
Government House fled in a White Toyota Hilux van.

 

“In view of the time constraint
and obvious risk to my life and to conclude the supplementary elections and
forestall the breakdown of law and order, I organized a meeting comprising my
co-chair, who is the Commissioner of Police, Director of Security Services,
Commandant of Civil Defense Corps and others on the way forward.

 

“As 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).

 

“I also organized a meeting with
the chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council, in the person of Mr. Bello Babajo
who assured me that he would reach 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.

 

“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 recognized
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.

 

“So, immediately after the
declaration, some PDP supporters attacked one of the National Commissioners,
Prof. Abdullahi Zuru as well as the Returning Officer, Prof. Muhammed Mele for
failing to deliver Mr. Anmadu Umaru Fintiri winner in the election after
collecting money from him.

 

“It was also alleged that the
people beaten in the purported video wanted to subvert the re-run election in
Adamawa State and undermine the will of the Adamawa people as expressed through
the ballot.

 

“A staff of Department of State
Services (DSS) on intelligence gathering on the money allegedly given to the
National Commissioners was also disarmed, abducted, taken to Government House
Yola and assaulted by Police from Government House, Yola and thugs loyal to the
PDP.

 

“In view of the preceding
paragraphs, whatever may be collated by the two National Commissioners is
shrouded in doubt which is unacceptable and therefore illegal. On my own side,
I want to categorically say that my action is within the responsibility vested
on me and within the ambit of the law particularly the Electoral Act 2022 as
amended.”