Hudu Yunusa Ari

Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC),who was arrested yesterday for announcing the result of the supplementary gubernatorial election in the state and declared Mrs. Aisha Binani Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner, declared that he is clean.

“I will surely be vindicated by the court,” he told the BBC Hausa.

The arrest of the suspended REC was announced via a press statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, FPRO, Mr Olumuyiwa Adejobi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, ASP.

According to the police spokesman, the police swooped on the man “following calls for his arrest and investigation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the basis of alleged impropriety in the course of supplementary gubernatorial polls in the State.”

Barrister Ari, Adejobi further disclosed, was arrested by the Police Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team in Abuja on Tuesday, Ma2y , 2023, “and is being grilled to ascertain the motives and motivations behind his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa State. In addition, other officials and individuals culpable in the saga are being interrogated by the team.”

But speaking with the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, before his arrest, Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari, had stoutly defended his action, declaring that he had no regret about what he did.

According to a report monitored on Channels Television, Hudu-Yunusa Ari said he never regretted announcing Aisha Binani Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the 2023 governorship election in the state.

He maintained that he acted in accordance with relevant laws in declaring the APC candidate as the governor-elect of the state before the declaration was nullified by the national headquarters of the electoral body in Abuja.

Explaining why he declared Binani as “winner”, arrested REC said: “Votes polled by candidates were disclosed, I don’t have the papers with me here but both in the main and supplementary elections, Binani scored 428,173 while Fintiri got 422,303 votes.
“I have no regrets at all as I acted under the law; it is the law that warranted what I did and it shall absolve me.”
“I will surely turn myself in to the police. Before, there was no summon from the police but now there is one. I will soon come out from hiding.”

On the alleged N2 billion bribe he reportedly demanded for the job, the man declared: “I never demanded any gratification from either of Binani or Fintiri. None of the duo sent anything to me; if they have done so by now they will be demanding their monies back.”

Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari stirred the hornets’ nest on April 15, 2023, when he announced Binani as the winner of the supplementary election in Adamawa State on April 15, 2023, while collation of results was still going on.

But the national headquarters of INEC in Abuja speedily annulled the declaration and suspended him. President Muhammadu Buhari also ordered full investigation of the REC and the security officers that were around him when he made the declaration.

The electoral umpire then concluded the election and announced the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the authentic winner.

CSP Adejobi also disclosed, Tuesday, that security agencies had also been ordered to arrest and prosecute the embattled REC whose whereabouts had been unknown since the controversy started over two weeks ago.

“The Inspector-General of Police has given clear assurance that every individual involved/indicted in the matter will be apprehended and investigated in line with the provisions of the law for possible prosecution,” the FRPO concluded