Hudu-Yunusa Ari, the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Adamawa State, has said he never regretted announcing Aisha Binani Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the 2023 governorship election in the state.
Ari, while speaking in an interaction with BBC Hausa on Tuesday, maintained that he acted in accordance with relevant laws in declaring the APC candidate as the governor-elect of the state before the declaration was overturned by the national headquarters of the electoral body in Abuja, according to a report by Channels TV, while ordered to arrest and prosecute the embattled REC whose whereabouts had been unknown since the controversy started over two weeks ago.
“I never demanded any gratification from either of Binani or Fintiri. None of the duo sent anything to me; if they have done so by now they will be demanding their monies back,” Ari said, speaking from hiding with BBC Hausa.
Asked why he announced Binani as “winner” in the first instance, the embattled REC said, “Votes polled by candidates were disclosed, I don’t have the papers with me here but both in the main and supplementary elections, Binani scored 428, 173 while Fintiri got 422, 303 votes.
“I have no regrets at all as I acted under the law; it is the law that warranted what I did and it shall absolve me.”
“I will surely turn myself in to the police. Before, there was no summon from the police but now there is one. I will soon come out from hiding.”
The Informant247 had reported that the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, who is also a lawyer, has given explanation that he acted within the ambit of the law to avert impending danger of the delay in announcing the results, saying 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.
Ari, who stated this in a letter write to the Inspector General of Police to explain his part in the controversial April 16 announcement of the governorship election, which put the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Aishatu Ahmed (Binani) as winner against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and governor of the state, Ahmadu Fintiri, said that he announced results of 69 polling units in the April 15 supplementary election due to security pressure.
In the letter, which was copied the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), 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.
He stated, “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.”
The Informant247 recalls that the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa, Prof Hudu Yunus Ari, declared Binani as winner midway into the collation.
It was gathered that the results from 10 out of the 20 local government areas had been declared while the exercise was adjourned till 11am.
However, Ari made pronouncement an hour before the scheduled time, even though the Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the one leading before the pronouncement was made.
Meanwhile, in a counter claim, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC (INEC) debunked the purported declaration in a statement released by Barr. Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner, Information & Voter Education, saying the declaration was nulled and void, adding that the election process has not been concluded before the declaration by the REC.