Barely a week after the National Assembly approved his dismissal, former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Adamawa State, Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari has insisted that the state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general elections in the state, Senator Aisha Dahiru (well known as Binani), won the poll.
On 16 April 2023, Yunusa-Ari made a sudden appearance at the collation centre in Yola, the state capital, to usurp the role of the election’s returning officer by declaring Binani as the winner of the election even while collation had yet to be concluded.
He was then suspended.
But Yunusa-Ari insisted he had documentary evidence that Binani defeated incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In a chat with journalists over the weekend at his residence in Bauchi, he swore by the Holy Qur’an that he took the decision in good faith and in accordance with the electoral guidelines.
Yunusa-Ari said that there was pressure on him and other officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the incumbent governor winner of the election or his security could not be guaranteed.
He alleged that both the commission’s Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, and the election tribunal dismissed all his evidence against the irregularities in the controversial governorship election.
Yunusa-Ari said: ‘It came to my notice that my Head of ICT, Bala Aji conducted himself, not in the manner of a good civil servant, or an honest civil servant, as far as the elections were concerned. He surrendered election documents, about 20,000 copies, to the Governor of Adamawa State.
‘We received a report, myself, the Commissioner of Police, and all the paramilitary agencies operating in Adamawa State. We went to that place, it’s a private house of the Governor. We went there, it took us time to open that door. The door was opened, we met the SSG and some government officials.
‘We met them working directly, directly with these documents. These documents cover the whole of the State. So, we wrote a report. This is what is happening. And not only that, Bala Aji (ICT Head of INEC in Adamawa) misappropriated some of our papers. He took them somewhere, and the worst of it, on the day of the election.
‘Bala Aji, the ICT head, was busy dashing away BVAS (Bimodal Voter AccreditationSystem) machines. He was giving our staff money in foreign currency. The thought came to me, I was shocked. To me, it’s an abuse of his own responsibility. So, I called him, I took strides against all that had happened, all the allegations against him. So, I expected the headquarters to respond quickly.
A visibly enraged Yunusa-Ari further said that he was not given fair-hearing and all evidence to prove why he declared Binani winner were ignored by INEC and the tribunal.
Responding on his sack, he said that he is consulting his family whether to seek legal redress or not.
‘My sack by the President did not bother me but the media trial has dented my image. I did not collect N2 billion from any politician. We are Nigerians, Nigeria belongs to all of us, it behoves on us to either make or mar it. This is very important and we must all choose what to do with it. I conducted the Presidential and NASS (National Assembly) elections successfully and was in the process of the gubernatorial and state Assembly elections when the problem began. It was in 69 polling units’, he said.
