Inec suspends Adamawa resident electoral commissioner who unilaterally declared Binani winner

NIGERIA'S Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has ordered its resident electoral commissioner for Adamawa State Hudu Yunusa-Ari to stay away from the commission’s state office in response to the controversy he has caused.

Over the weekend, Mr Yunusa-Ari’s declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Senator Aisha Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, as the Adamawa State governor-elect, following Saturday’s supplementary election. He did so while the votes were still being counted despite the fact that he was not legally empowered to do so, as this was the job of the returning officer.

Inec has since disassociated itself from the pronouncement and in a recent letter signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, the secretary to the commission, Mr Yunusa-Ari has been asked to stay away from its Yola headquarters in Adamawa State. Yesterday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors called for the prosecution of Mr Yunusa-Ari for his actions, saying it threatened the peace.

Senator Binani has already filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to prevent Inec and its agents from taking any further steps towards the declaration of the winner of the election pending the determination of her court case. Before Mr Yunusa-Ari's unlawful declaration, Senator Binani was trailing Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP, who had established a margin of lead of 31,249 votes.

Following the original election on March 18, Governor Fintiri had scored 421, 524 votes ahead of Senator Binani who got 390, 275 votes. However, Governor Fintiri could not be declared the winner by the state returning officer, Professor Mohammed Mele, of the University of Maiduguri because the margin of lead did not exceed the number of cancelled votes in 69 polling units.

A supplementary election was thus held last weekend and while counting was still ongoing, Mr Yunusa-Ari went ahead to unilaterally declare a winner.  His action was condemned by opposition parties and former Inec national commissioners as strange, with some Nigerians saying the incident reflected the anomaly that characterised the general election.