The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to immediately arrest and prosecute Malam Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Adamawa.
The PDP, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja, demanded that Yunusa-Ari should be arrested for making illegal declaration of the election result in ‘criminal usurpation of the duties and powers’ of the Returning Officer, Prof Mohammed Mele, while collation process was still on-going.
“It is even more absurd that the Adamawa REC did not only usurp the powers of the returning officer but attempted to declare a winner without figures.
“He made the attempt in reckless violation of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act, 2022, INEC Guidelines as well as the sensibility of the people of Adamawa State,” Ologunagba said.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary said that the reprehensible criminal conduct of the state REC confirmed the earlier alarms by the PDP which demanded for his immediate removal from Adamawa State.
Yunusa-Ari’s action, the PDP said, is subversive and calculated to cause crisis in Adamawa and destabilise democracy and peaceful co-existence as a nation.
“We call on the IGP to immediately arrest Yunusa-Ari and make him face the full wrath of the law for his conduct,” PDP declared.
Ologunagba said that the PDP noted the pronouncement by INEC Headquarters that the action of the REC was “null, void and of no effect”.
The PDP, therefore, demanded that INEC Headquarters should immediately direct the state returning officer to conclude collation and announce the results from the polling units.
Ologunagba called on INEC to declare PDP candidate and the incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri as winner, declaring: “having scored the majority of lawful votes cast.
“From the results already collated across the 69 polling units where the supplementary elections held and which are on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, Fintiri clearly won the election.
“Our party, therefore, demands that INEC should without further delay announce the results as already collated from the polling units and declare Fintiri as winner.
“Anything short of this will not be accepted by our party and the people of Adamawa State.”
He called on the people of Adamawa, Nigerians and the international community to disregard the purported declaration of Aisha Dahiru, widely known as Binani, of the APC as winner of the election.
NAN