Drama as INEC Summons Adamawa REC to Abuja Over ‘False’ Declaration of Guber Result
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has summoned the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Adamawa State, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, to the Commission’s Head Office in Abuja.
This is just as INEC also suspended the collation of results of the supplementary election.
It was gathered that Ari was summarily invited by INEC for declaring the winner of the State gubernatorial election re-run, held yesterday.
A flurry of reports on the social media early Sunday said that INEC declared Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the winner of the Adamawa governorship election.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari made the declaration midway into the collation following the supplementary election held Saturday.
Before the collation of exercise was suspended on Saturday night and adjourned till 11 am on Sunday, results from 10 out of the 20 local government areas had been announced — and Binani was trailing Ahmadu Fintiri, the incumbent governor and PDP candidate.
His announcement elicited outcry from members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the hall who protested why the announcement was made by the REC instead of the returning officer.
Mele Lamido, the returning officer for the Adamawa governorship election, was not present when Ari announced Binani as the winner of the election.
However, in the Commission’s official Twitter handle, Festus Okoye, National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, described the action of the REC as a usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer, saying that, “It is null, void and of no effect”.
More details coming…
