Binani lied to us by saying that Electoral Officers Met With Adamawa Govt -INEC
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has charged the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Adamawa State, Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru, with colluding with the incumbent governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Ahmadu Fintiri.
INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye stated in a statement on Thursday that Binani’s allegations were false and malicious.
Binani, who has since filed a court challenge against Fintiri’s victory, alleged in a statement on Tuesday that several INEC national authorities from Abuja met at the Adamawa State Government House late at night.
“To set the record straight,” INEC stated, “no such visit or meeting took place, let alone the compilation of any purported list of collation and returning officers.” Such a gathering would have violated the neutrality promise we all swore.
“Furthermore, any astute observer would have seen that the Commission only appointed and maintained one returning officer for the governorship election, who also served as the State Collation Officer for the Presidential Election (SCOPE).
“Like all returning officers nationwide, he was issued a letter of appointment by the Commission, and Adamawa State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was informed.” The list of collecting officers was also provided to the state, with the Chairman of the Commission personally endorsing every page of the list well in advance of the arrival of the National Commissioners.”
Okoye went on to say that Adamawa was not targeted in the deployment of national commissioners and other officials.
“In the case of Adamawa State, where a supplementary governorship election was held in 69 polling units, two National Commissioners were deployed, while three National Commissioners were deployed in Kebbi State, which involved 142 polling units.”Similarly, one National Commissioner was assigned to each of the following states: Sokoto, Zamfara, Imo, Rivers, Ekiti, and Ogun. This has been the Commission’s regular practise, and all RECS have been informed in advance. As a result, Adamawa State was not singled out. “With the exception of Adamawa State, the RECS worked cooperatively with the National Commissioners for reasons that are now obvious to all,” the statement stated.
INEC warned the public to “disregard these insinuations as nothing more than claptrap.”
“We also urge those responsible for the sabotage to stop immediately, as such fabrications have endangered the lives of our officials (both ad hoc and regular) engaged in legitimate election duties.” “We expect well-intentioned citizens to act with propriety and decency,” the statement added.
Hudu Yunusa, Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa, usurped the authority of the state’s Returning Officer, Mohammed Mele, on Sunday and declared Binani the winner of the dramatic election. INEC later declared the declaration null and void, stopped the collation of results, and removed Ari from office.
INEC continued counting votes on Tuesday, and Fintiri received 430,861 votes, defeating Binani, who received 398,738 votes. Fintiri was also named the winner of the hotly disputed election by INEC.
Meanwhile, a video surfaced online in which a battered Ari purportedly stated that he took a N2BN bribe to declare Binani the winner of the election.Binani, on the other hand, stated in her statement that she never offered money to influence the process.