The fleeing and suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa Ari, has insisted that Aishatu Binani Ahmed, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC won the 2023 governorship election in Adamawa, according to a letter he sent to the nation’s top security agencies.
In the letter obtained by The Gazette Ari and also copied to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Ari asserted that the two national commissioners, Baba Bila and Abdullahi Zuru, who had been tasked to assist him with the supplementary election on April 15, were secretly working with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the results.
Mr Yunusa Ari has been on the run since April 16, minutes after he suddenly declared Mrs Ahmed winner while collation in the supplementary exercise was still underway. The INEC chief did not present any evidence to support his declaration, which he appeared to have made offhand. He was seen later that day leaving the state in a chartered flight and has not been seen ever since.
INEC headquarters in Abuja subsequently nullified Mr Yunusa Ari’s action, summoned him to Abuja and asked the police and other security agencies to take him into custody. The agency later concluded the election and declared Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP winner. President Muhammadu Buhari also ordered the immediate arrest of Mr Yunusa Ari for the illegal declaration, which sparked nationwide anxiety.
It was not immediately clear whether or not security agencies know Mr Yunusa Ari’s location, especially after he managed to write letters to federal authorities.
In a statement to The Gazette, INEC spokesman, Festus Okoye, said Mr Yunusa Ari should turn himself in to the commission or police, who already have a file outlining the offences he committed in the line of duty.
“He should report and answer to the electoral infractions and make his allegations, and it should form part of police investigation,” Mr Okoye told The Gazette Tuesday night.
“The commission is not interested in his ‘fictional letters from hiding’,” Mr Okoye added. “If he has a narration, he should make them to the police. Alternatively, he can report to the commission and the commission will take him to the police.”
SSS spokesman Peter Afunanya directed The Gazette to an April 16 press statement where the secret police had said it was investigating an attack “in which someone suspected to be its staff was allegedly manhandled by some political miscreants in Adamawa State.”
