The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
denied allegations that its officials visited the Adamawa government house
during the supplementary governorship election in the state.
While the results from the election were yet to be
announced, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, resident electoral commissioner (REC) of the
commission, declared Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), as the winner.
Although INEC subsequently declared the announcement null
and void, the development triggered protests in the state and there were
reports that the APC candidate gave INEC officials N2 billion to be announced
as the winner.
Denying the accusation on Tuesday, Binani alleged that some
INEC officials paid a “nocturnal visit” to the government house before Ahmadu
Fintiri, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared the
winner of the poll on Tuesday.
The APC candidate also alleged that the collation and
returning officers were selected by the governor of Adamawa.
‘NO SUCH MEETING TOOK
PLACE’
INEC, in a statement on Thursday, said “no such visit or
meeting took place let alone the compilation of any purported list of collation
and returning officers”.
The commission said it appointed and retained only one
returning officer for the governorship election who also doubled as the state
collation officer for the presidential election.
“Like all Returning Officers nationwide, he was issued with
a letter of appointment by the Commission and the Resident Electoral
Commissioner (REC) in Adamawa State was duly informed. The list of Collation
Officers was also forwarded to the State with every page of the list personally
endorsed by the Chairman of the Commission well ahead of the arrival of the
National Commissioners,” the statement reads.
“Similarly, the same Press Statement created the impression
that the national headquarters of the Commission specifically targetted Adamawa
State in its deployment of National Commissioners and other officials with the
sole intention of influencing the outcome of the supplementary election held on
Saturday 25th April 2023 and sidelining the REC. Nothing can be further from
the truth.
“For the record, it has been the standard policy and
practice of the Commission to deploy National Commissioners, RECs and other
staff from the headquarters or neighbouring States for supplementary or
off-cycle elections where doing so is considered necessary.
“In the case of
Adamawa State where supplementary governorship election was held in 69 polling
units, two National Commissioners were deployed while for Kebbi State involving
142 polling units, three National Commissioners were deployed. Similarly, one
National Commissioner each was deployed to Sokoto, Zamfara, Imo, Rivers, Ekiti
and Ogun States.
“This has been the standard practice of the Commission of
which all RECs are informed in advance. Therefore, Adamawa State was not
specifically targeted. In all other States, the RECs worked cooperatively with
the National Commissioners except in Adamawa State for reasons that are now
obvious to all.
“The public is advised to discountenance these insinuations
as nothing more than a claptrap. We also advise those behind the mischief to
desist forthwith as such fabrications have endangered the lives of our
officials (both ad hoc and regular) engaged in legitimate election duties. We
expect well-meaning citizens to act within the bounds of propriety and
decency.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com