All Progressive Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate in the last Gubernatorial Election in Adamawa State, Senator Binani has accused INEC of plotting to frustrate the prosecution of her petition challenging the declaration of Governor Adamu Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the poll.
Senator Binani, who spoke in Abuja through the APC Returning Officer at the March 18 governorship election and the April 15 supplementary poll, Alhaji Mustapha Umar Madawaki.
The APC candidate claimed that INEC, in alleged disregard of a subsisting court order, was planning to arrest and detain the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Adamawa, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, as part of a well-planned strategy to prevent him from testifying as her key witness before Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
The commission, according to the APC candidate, was conniving with the state government and anti-Binani forces to thwart the diligent prosecution of the petition, adding that INEC wanted the suspended REC apprehended and kept out of circulation to make him unavailable as witness for the governorship candidate.
Tracing the genesis of the election crisis and the resulting petition, Umar alleged that at the point of collation of results, INEC suddenly allowed its trained ad- hoc workers changed and unlawfully and mysteriously substituted by another group of untrained staff that were not meant for collation of results.
Claiming that an unlawful ad-hoc staff list was submitted by an agent of the state government, Madawaki stated that the fact that INEC accepted the list and used it showed that it was biased in favour of the PDP.
He said: “To my mind, that is a major reason why INEC is working overtime, trying to prevent the former Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, from testifying before the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
“They are afraid of the revelations he would make. Their desperation is so brazen that Justice A.O Manji was forced to openly question INEC lawyer on why they are in a hurry to get Hudu Yunusa Ari arrested while there is a clear court order against that.
“To my mind also, that is the same reason that the Force Headquarters under the former Inspector General of Police IGP shot itself in the foot when it doctored the earlier investigative report into the Adamawa elections that found no indictable offence against Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari to another one they could use to quickly arrest and incarcerate him.
“We have both the original investigative report and the doctored one at our disposal. We are aware that these are serious charges and have therefore refrained from elaborating further on some of the matters because they are before the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal”