Ari stated this in a letter addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, explaining his side of the story in the controversial April 16 declaration of the governorship election, which put the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Aishatu Ahmed Binani as winner against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and governor of the state, Ahmadu Fintiri.

In the letter, which was copied the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Ari stated he acted within the ambit of the law to avert looming danger of the delay in announcing the results, especially because he realised that the results brought by the presiding officers from the 69 polling units, which he did not sign, differed from those uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Ari listed the attempts to replace him as the collation officer with the administrative secretary, threats by candidates to cause mayhem, commissioners appointing ‘illegal collation officers’, and his house being surrounded by policemen from the Government House as some of the risks he faced in the course of the election.

He stated, “It was based on this that I compiled all the polling unit results and declared the winner of the election based on the highest number of valid votes scored by the candidate of the APC.

“I had the breakdown of the valid votes scored by the two leading candidates in the supplementary election, using the results from the polling units as collated into all relevant forms EC8B, C, D and E respectively by properly and legally appointed and recognised collation officers and my humble self as the Adamawa State Chief Collation Officer and Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

“Prior to the declaration, there was an intelligence report made available to me that the two national commissioners were at the Government House, Yola at 8:31pm on April 15, 2023 and held a meeting with Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.”

He said that immediately after the declaration, some PDP supporters attacked two INEC commissioners and the returning officer for allegedly failing to deliver Governor Fintiri, adding that “it was alleged that the people beaten in the purported video wanted to subvert the rerun election in Adamawa State and undermine the will of the people as expressed through the ballot.”

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Tinubu gave the charge in a post-election assessment statement he personally signed, Wednesday, as Adamawa State governor-elect, Umaru Fintiri, supported moves to prosecute the alleged perpetrators of what he described as the criminality behind the drama that played out at the governorship rerun.

This is even as the Federal Government, yesterday, said President Muhammadu Buhari did not intervene in the governorship drama in Adamawa State because the matter was within the purview of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to handle.

Tinubu spoke as the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, summoned Adamawa State Commandant, Muhammad Bello, to the Corps headquarters in Abuja to explain his role in Sunday’s failed attempt by the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, to usurp powers of the Chief Returning Officer in unilaterally declaring the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate, Aisha Dahiru, also known as Binani, as governor-elect.

On Tuesday, the Inspector-General of Police IGP, Usman Baba Alkali, redeployed Adamawa State Police Commissioner, CP Mohammed Barde, over his role in the election saga.

Tinubu, who congratulated winners of Kebbi and Adamawa supplementary governorship elections, said: “I also rejoice with those elected into the Senate, House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly during the last round of elections in states where such took place.

‘’These victorious men and women have earned the trust of their people and I call on them to rededicate themselves to the service of their respective constituents.
“The supplementary polls have now brought the 2023 elections to a final, fitting conclusion. I observed, with satisfaction, the largely peaceful atmosphere that pervaded the supplementary election on Saturday.
‘’It was further testimony that our citizens have accepted democratic norms and have unalloyed faith in the electoral process.
“However, I note the matter of the Adamawa supplementary governorship election and I urge police authorities to fully investigate all that transpired in the election, given the attendant controversy.

‘’In every democratic contest, there has to be one winner. I call on those aggrieved to pursue legitimate means of addressing their grievances.
“With the conclusion of the 2023 elections, I now welcome all of us who have been elected to brace up to serve our people with diligence and dedication and to join hands with me as your President-elect in the pursuit of our agenda to renew the hopes of our people in a better, stronger, more secure, economically vibrant and prosperous Nigeria.”

Also, Fintiri, who collected his certificate of return alongside other elected candidates, yesterday, insisted that those who tried to undermine the electoral process in Adamawa must be prosecuted.

The INEC declared Fintiri, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, winner on Tuesday amid political intrigue that saw his closest rival, Senator Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru of the APC being declared the winner on Sunday, while collation was still underway.

“I think everybody has learnt his lesson,” Fintiri said during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, last night after his victory was made official.

“INEC itself, as an umpire, has learnt a lot of lessons and it has corrected its wrongs so that it can protect itself as an institution.

“The police that is supposed to protect democracy became caught up in the whole saga. It’s unfortunate. It’s a disgrace.

“But I think everybody is picking up and they are trying to correct their wrongs. Time will tell if these people will be properly prosecuted. But if they don’t prosecute this criminality that took place in Adamawa State, I am going to prosecute them.”

However, INEC had since resolved to write the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, to probe and prosecute the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Adamawa State, Hudu Ari.

Similarly, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, ordered the immediate replacement of the Commissioner of Police on election duty in Adamawa, Mohammed Barde, with his counterpart in Gombe State, CP Etim Equa.

Asked to share his perspective on a rare instance of a governorship race with a woman as a front-runner, Fintiri argued that Binani was not the one he ran against.

“I don’t think I have run against any woman in Adamawa State. I ran against enemies of democracy outside Adamawa State and their gang-up has not got anywhere. I think, for now, we give God the glory,” he said.

On who was ganging up against him and why, the governor said: “They decided to be enemies of democracy and the only scapegoat they could find is in Adamawa State. They wanted to put a woman (from) their party, forgetting that we have performed excellently well in Adamawa State, our people love us.”

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INEC’s action was premised  on Yunusa-Ari’s declaration of the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Aisha Dahiru, popularly known as Binani as the governor-elect in Saturday’s supplementary election.

The commission also barred the REC from coming to the office in a letter signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony.

The REC’s action continued to attract criticism on Monday as the Peoples Democratic Party governors called for his prosecution.

But Binani at Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday filed a suit  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

Yunusa-Ari had announced Binani as the winner of the supplementary polls while the collation of the results was underway, causing confusion in the state and drawing consternation across the country.

Before the declaration, Binani was trailing behind Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP, who had established a margin of lead of 31,249 votes.

Fintiri had scored 421, 524 votes ahead of Binani who got 390, 275 votes.

However, Fintiri could not be declared the winner of the March 18 governorship election by the state returning officer, Professor Mohammed Mele, of the Department of English and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri, Bornu State, because the margin of lead did not exceed the number of cancelled votes in 69 polling units.

Yunusa-Ari’s action was condemned by opposition parties and ex-INEC national commissioners as strange and with some Nigerians saying the incident reflected the anomaly that characterised the general elections.

But the INEC nullified the pronouncement and also summoned the REC who usurped the duties of the returning officer and other officials to Abuja.

However, the embattled REC and his colleagues could not appear before a committee of the commission in Abuja on Monday due to the ongoing strike by aviation workers which grounded airport operations nationwide.

It was gathered that all the INEC national commissioners who would constitute the committee members were also affected by the aviation strike as they could not get return flights to Abuja.

It was learnt that the senior INEC officials, who had participated in the rerun polls in different states, were returning by road and expected at the INEC headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday (today).

But Oriaran-Anthony in her letter to Yunusa-Ari dated April 17, 2023, explained that the administrative secretary of the commission in Adamawa State had been directed to take charge of the INEC office in the state.

The letter read, “I hereby convey the commission’s decision that you (Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari), Resident Electoral Commissioner, Adamawa State should stay away from the commission’s office in Adamawa State immediately until further notice. The administrative secretary has been directed to take full charge of INEC, Adamawa State with immediate effect.”

In the meantime, Fintiri’s supporters on Monday took to the streets demanding the collation of the supplementary election results and conclusion of the process without further delay.

The protesters who turned out in their thousands were led by prominent PDP stakeholders.

They marched from the party’s office located at the police roundabout to the INEC headquarters.

The demonstrators were restrained from destroying the billboards bearing the images of Binani and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu by the Deputy Director-General of the PDP Presidential and Governorship Campaign Council, Felix Tangwami.

He called for decorum, noting that the protest would continue until the electoral commission yielded to their demand by concluding the collation process and announcing Fintiri as the winner.

“Be peaceful and civil; we would lay siege to the INEC office until the commission listens to us, resume collation and make a return because Adamawa people are not happy because what has happened is treasonable and illegal. We take our call to the street to demand that justice be done with our protest for as long as it takes. Please exercise restraint and decorum,” Tangwami told the party’s loyalists.

Speaking to one of our correspondents on Monday, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the meeting with the summoned REC and other officials might be held on Tuesday, adding that the national commissioners were on their way back to Abuja.

Okoye confirmed that the Adamawa returning officer had arrived in Abuja, adding that he was not sure if Yunusa-Ari was also in the city.

He stated, “No national commissioner in Abuja except the chairman (Mahmood Yakubu). We were all deployed for supplementary elections. The national commissioners are on their way back to Abuja. If there will be any meeting, it will be tomorrow (Tuesday) because the national commissioners have to return to Abuja before a meeting can take place. I am sure that the Returning Officer for the Adamawa governorship election is already in Abuja.”

Explaining the steps that would be taken by INEC to resolve the Adamawa debacle, Okoye disclosed that the commission would meet to take a decision on the resumption of the results’ collation.

He stated, “At the end of the meeting, far-reaching decisions will be taken. The commission will also offer a full and unambiguous explanation of the actions it has taken and measures put in place to safeguard electoral integrity. The commission is conscious of its responsibilities to the Nigerian people and its decision on the suspension and resumption of collation (of results) will be guided by the Constitution, the Electoral Act and its Regulations and Guidelines.’’

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The governorship election as well as elections in four House of Assembly constituencies were declared inconclusive after the March 18 exercise in the State.

Assuring on Wednesday the supplementary elections scheduled for April 15 would go as planned, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa also assured that the elections would be credible.

Yunusa confirmed that the governorship rerun will be done in 69 polling units across 20 local government areas with 32,935 collected PVCs.

He announced the update while hosting a stakeholders meeting that discussed the rerun.

The stakeholders meeting was held against doubts severally expressed, especially by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and other supporters of the party’s governorship candidate, Ahmadu Fintiri, about Yunusa being trustworthy.

Calls have severally been made for Yunusa’s removal after audio leaked in the course of the initial March 18 governorship election in which he allegedly instructed an INEC subordinate to favour an opponent of Fintiri.

Ari, who has so far survived the calls for his removal, said the Wednesday afternoon INEC-Stakeholders meeting that supplementary elections to finally determine outstanding four House of Assembly members will be held in Girei, Gombi, Numan and Toungo LGAs.

Meanwhile, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri who is the PDP governorship candidate for the April 15 rerun will go into it with 421,524 votes; while Sen Aisha Ahmed Binani of All Progressives Congress (APC), will participate in the rerun with 390,375 votes received from the initial March 18 election.

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Members of the court’s seven-man panel led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, were unanimous in dismissing the appeals by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election.

Justice Dattijo Mohammed, who read the lead judgment in the appeal in relation to the Adamawa case, held that the appellants failed to prove their case.

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The tribunal, headed by Justice Adediran Adebara, while giving its judgment on the petition on Friday, declared that the petition was dismissed because it lacked merit.

The tribunal chairman said the petitioner also failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.

Adebara said the petitioner could not prove the case of over voting and non-compliance as well as irregularities during the March 2019 re-run governorship election.

The judge averred that even the witnesses of the petitioner APC were inconsistent in their submissions prompting him to discard their submissions.

The Counsel to the Respondent, Leonard Zadon, said the judgment delivered was in order and a victory to law, adding that the victory was not only for PDP, but “been able to bring law as it is.”

The Counsel to the Petitioner (APC), Ibrahim Efiong, said that although their petition was dismissed, they would wait and get the copy of the judgement and study it to determine where to go from there.

It could be recalled that INEC conducted the the Adamawa governorship re-run election on March 28, 2019.

The Returning Officer, Prof. Andrew Haruna, declared the result on Friday morning in Yola after the supplementary election in 44 polling units across 14 local government areas of the state.

Fintiri polled 376,552 votes to defeat the incumbent Gov. Jibrilla Bindow of the All Progressives Congress who got 336,386 votes.

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