Advocate lawyer and activist, Mr Femi Falana has said that the Adamawa State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aishatu “Binani” Dahiru’s acceptance speech confirmed that she was in on the illegal declaration.
Falana stated this In an interview with Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria described Binani’s declaration and her acceptance speech as a ”charade”.
He said: ”With respect to the acceptance speech, it already confirmed that she was party to the charade. She has to be brought in by the police and investigated.
“How did you prepare a speech if you did not know that you were going to be declared the winner because, at that stage, the collation had not been concluded?
“The last point is the role of NTA (Nigerian Television Authority). The NTA televised the acceptance speech. I expect the NBC (National Broadcasting Commission) to move in speedily and sanction the NTA because, at that time, collation was still ongoing”.
Last Sunday morning, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the state, Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari sneaked into the result collation centre in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, to declare Binani winner of the governorship election. At the time the centre went into recess the previous night, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri was in the lead. Yunusa-Ari did not provide any justification for his declaration.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission reversed the declaration. It said the action of the REC was a move to usurp the power of the Returning Officer, who eventually followed the due process and announced Fintiri winner of the election.
Meanwhile, Falana has demanded that Binani be investigated by the police.
