Politics

INEC: Police on trail of fleeing Adamawa REC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the police are on the trail of its suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

INEC had said the whereabouts of the REC, who was recently suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari over the controversial supplementary governorship election in Adamawa State, was unknown, stressing that he refused to take phone calls.

The commission had earlier announced it had written the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, to investigate and prosecute Yunusa-Ari.

However, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, in an interview with Arise TV on Sunday, April 23, said information has been provided to help the police to arrest the Adamawa REC.

Okoye disclosed that the Nigeria Police Force has responded to the letter written to them by INEC, adding that the NPF has commenced an investigation into the REC’s whereabouts.

“INEC has written officially to the Inspector-General of Police detailing some of the infractions which the INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner committed and asking for a thorough investigation of his actions and also asking that the police should find out if he had accomplices in the infractions which he committed.

“The police force has responded to the letter written to them by the commission and advised that they had commenced investigations in relation to his whereabouts and secondly relating to the infractions which he committed. So, that is where we are now,” he said.

Asked if INEC would advise the police to declare Hudu Yunusa-Ari wanted, Okoye said: “It is not within the province of the commission to dictate to the police force how to carry out its investigation and how to do its work. They have various sources of information and they have various procedures and processes through which they carry out their work.

“We are hopeful and confident that the information available to them at the moment that they will be in a position to determine when to declare him wanted if they don’t know where he is.

“Some people took Hudu Ari out of Yola on the day he actually made the so-called declaration. So, there should be some leads to where the Resident Electoral Commissioner is.

“The Commissioner of Police was with him at the purported declaration, a director in the Department of State Services was with him during the purported declaration and some people took him out of the collation centre. So, some of those individuals have a lead or information on his whereabouts,” Okoye stated.

The Star