HUDU SAVED INEC FROM NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT
Sahara Weekly Reports That about one week now, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa State, Barr. Hudu Yunusa Ari, attracted the news headlines for declaring the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Dahiru Binani, the winner of the supplementary governorship election.
While Hudu’s action under the circumtance is seen by many Nigerians, including lawyers, as legal and within his powers as the State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), the PDP and INEC questioned his authority.
For those who are condemning Hudu’s action, I dare say that the REC saved INEC from a repeat national embarrassment of the Commission in the 2019 governorship election of the same Adamawa state.
Just like in 2023, INEC declared the 2019 governorship election inconclusive. INEC embarrassed itself when the returning officer (Prof. Andrew Haruna) in the 2019 governorship declared the election inconclusive by relying on the provision of the number of registered voters (40,988) being higher than the margin of lead(32,476 votes) by one of the candidates not to declare a winner or make a return.
With the use of PVC as the only identity of a voter to be eligible to vote, INEC ought to have relied on the number of PVCs collected out of the registered voters of 40,988 in the polling units where the election did not hold or was canceled. The number of PVCs collected out of 40,988 registered voters, which INEC ought to have relied upon to arrive at the right decision in the 2019 governorship election, was 31,027.
What this means is that the 2019 governorship election should not have been declared inconclusive by INEC since the margin of lead was 32,476 while the PVCs collected for the rerun were 31,027. Yet INEC went ahead to conduct a rerun election when the number of eligible voters (with PVCs) for the election was less than the margin of lead in the election.
The Commission’s flawed judgment cost the federal government human and material resources that were avoidable. A later amendment to the Electoral Act is the result of INEC’s embarrassment in handling the 2019 Adamawa governorship election.
It is a repeat of this national embarrassment by INEC in the 2019 governorship in the Adamawa state that Hudu wanted to avoid in the 2023 election by being proactive and decisive. Like in 2019, there was no reason to have declared the 2023 election inconclusive if the issue of the multiple results from Fufore was courageously resolved.
Reports had it that the result that was used by the returning officer to declare the governorship election inconclusive was one of the multiple results from Fufore. It was the result that was allegedly declared under duress by the electoral officer. Agents of the state government along with security agents were said to have laid siege on the INEC office of the Fufore Local Government and forced the electoral officer to declare the result that was eventually used by the state returning officer.
A rerun election was ordered. Hudu knew very well that a particular authentic result from Fufore that would have brought the election to a conclusion was ignored. Hudu could not have stopped the rerun election after it was pronounced by the returning officer.
However, the REC, as a lawyer, located his powers under Section 149 of the Electoral Act and decided to act even before the end of the collation of the results of the rerun election. He used the correct result from Fufore, which showed that Sen. Binani won the election with 428, 173 votes against her opponent’s 422,303 votes.
Like in 2019, if the correct thing was done, the 2023 governorship election wouldn’t have been declared inconclusive. Hudu is the hero and not the villain in the 2023 Adamawa Governorship election. We expect INEC to take a look at the role of RECs as the State Chief Returning Officer in the governorship election.
Signed;
Martins Yanatham Dickson.
Member, Media Committee Binani Governorship Campaign Organisation.
