The All Progressives Congress (APC) Returning Officer at the March 18 Governorship election in Adamawa State, Alhaji Mustapha Madawaki says efforts to arrest the the suspended INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Hudu Ari is affecting the petition of the party’s candidate Senator Aishat Binani against the People’s Democratic Party and its candidate Adamu Fintiri.
Addressing Journalists in Abuja, Alhaji Madawaki alleged that the electoral body in utter disregard to order of court was making efforts to arrest and detain Hudu Ari as a ploy to prevent him from testifying for Senator Binani at the ongoing Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
The suspended INEC Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner Hudu Ari had declared Senator Binani as the winner of the Adamawa Governorship election even when the collation of results was still ongoing despite not been his duty to do so.
This action generated reactions from the public forcing INEC to order Ari to stay away from to stay away from its office in the state with immediate effect.
In April, former President, Muhammadu Buhari approved the suspension of Ari who was later arrested by the police in May to ascertain the reasons and motivations for his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa State.
Madawaki appealed to Nigerians to call INEC to order to allow the APC candidate reclaim her mandate obtained from the poll.
Tracing the genesis of the election crisis and the resulting petition, the APC Returning Officer alleged that at the point of collation of results, INEC suddenly substituted its add- hoc workers with another group of untrained staff that were not meant for collation.
According to him, the result of the unlawful change of add- hoc workers was the production of different election results from the one submitted by the authentic workers.
