Fact check: Rogue REC, Hudu Yunusa, repeats lie that Binani, not Fintiri, won 2023 polls.

Before the glaring of journalists on Saturday, INEC rogue REC Hudu Yunusa Ari repeated a lie he told last year. He asserted that Binani, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 gubernatorial election in Adamawa, won the 2023 polls, not Fintiri.

“I can even announce it now; she won the election against Fintiri,” the rogue REC said.

Facts First: Hudu’s claims are not true. Hudu Yunusa Ari, the rogue REC, lacks the power to make a declaration in any election conducted in Adamawa. According to the electoral laws, every election has a returning officer, who is mainly an ad-hoc staff member of the commission.

According to the regulations guiding the 2023 elections in Nigeria, no INEC REC could return a candidate. The partisanship of the rogue REC, Hudu Yunusa, was so glaring that he violated the oath of office he took to remain apolitical and neutral; Hudu was caught on tape begging a local government returning officer to help a woman. He further claimed the directive was from above.

Despite Hudu’s rhetoric, he could not provide any evidence of the result he used in the illegal declaration. Finally, no court prevents Hudu from testifying; it was the petitioner’s side that withdrew Hudu from testifying at the election petition tribunal, having known that the REC lacks power to make a return in any election.

In addition, if Hudu claims he was prevented from appearing in court, he should please come out of hiding, as there is still a pending case before him at the Adamawa State High Court; this is an avenue for him to come clean.

The sacked fugitive REC has never substantiated this assertion.

Regardless of the press statement and Hudu’s claims of Binani winning, there is simply no basis for claiming Binani won the 2023 polls in Adamawa.