The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied meeting with Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, to rig the governorship supplementary election held on April 15, 2023.
INEC said Fintiri, who was seeking re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did not give the commission a list of collation and returning officers deployed for the gubernatorial election.
The Star recalls that the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the election, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, had declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Aishatu Binani, as the winner of the poll while the collation of results was still ongoing at the commission’s collation centre in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, on Sunday, April 16.
Yunusa-Ari, who said the APC candidate scored the highest number of votes, did not provide the data or the results with which she won the election.
The INEC headquarters, after declaring the REC’s action null and void, on Tuesday, April 18, declared Governor Finti PDP as the winner of the controversial poll.
Allegations later emerged that the electoral umpire rigged the governorship election for the governor.
Reacting to the accusations, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, in a statement issued on Thursday, April 20, said: “The attention of the Commission has been drawn to a Press Statement by a candidate in the recently concluded Adamawa State Governorship election in which officials deployed for legitimate duty in the State were alleged to have undermined the electoral process after a discreet ‘nocturnal’ visit to the Government House and ostensibly met with one of the candidates in the election who gave them a list of ‘collation and returning officers’ deployed for the election.
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“Ordinarily, the Commission does not join issues with partisan actors, particularly where no evidence has been provided.
“To set the record straight, no such visit or meeting took place let alone the compilation of any purported list of collation and returning officers. Such a meeting would have been contrary to the oath of neutrality that we all swore to.
“Moreover, every conscientious observer would have noticed that the Commission appointed and retained only one Returning Officer for the Governorship election who also doubled as the State Collation Officer for the Presidential Election.
“Like all Returning Officers nationwide, he was issued with a letter of appointment by the Commission and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State was duly informed.
“The list of Collation Officers was also forwarded to the State with every page of the list personally endorsed by the Chairman of the Commission well ahead of the arrival of the National Commissioners,” Okoye stated.
The INEC official, who described the press statement as “a claptrap”, noted that it created the impression that the National Headquarters of the commission targeted Adamawa State in its deployment of National Commissioners and other officials with the sole intention of influencing the outcome of the supplementary election and sidelining the REC.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. For the record, it has been the standard policy and practice of the Commission to deploy National Commissioners, RECs, and other staff from the headquarters or neighbouring States for supplementary or off-cycle elections where doing so is considered necessary.
“In the case of Adamawa State where supplementary governorship election was held in 69 polling units, two National Commissioners were deployed while for Kebbi State involving 142 polling units, three National Commissioners were deployed.
“Similarly, one National Commissioner each was deployed to Sokoto, Zamfara, Imo, Rivers, Ekiti, and Ogun States.
“This has been the standard practice of the Commission of which all RECs are informed in advance. Therefore, Adamawa State was not specifically targeted. In all other States, the RECs worked cooperatively with the National Commissioners except in Adamawa State for reasons that are now obvious to all.
“The public is advised to discountenance these insinuations as nothing more than a claptrap.
“We also advise those behind the mischief to desist forthwith as such fabrications have endangered the lives of our officials (both ad hoc and regular) engaged in legitimate election duties.
“We expect well-meaning citizens to act within the bounds of propriety and decency,” Okoye added.
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