Months after, INEC files charges against suspended Adamawa REC, Ari

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally filed a six-count charge against its suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Adawama State, Barr. Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

Yunusa-Ari was in charge of the Adamawa State March 18 and also the controversial supplementary governorship election in Adamawa which had illegally declared candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani) as winner and governor-elect.

Ari was subsequently suspended by both INEC and President Muhammadu Buhari, in April, and then handed over to the police, but the REC was mysteriously flown out of Adamawa State via the Yola airport, in a private jet as INEC declared him missing, only to show up at the Police Headquarters in Abuja, amid further controversial circumstances.

While the police claimed in a statement that the REC was arrested, Ari refuted the police statement insisting he willfully honoured an invitation to report to the station.

In May, this year, police confirmed granting bail to the embattled Yunusa-Ari, who has been in their custody for barely a week.

The Force Headquarters, in a statement signed by its spokesperson, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, also disclosed that investigations into the case surrounding Ari’s involvement in the illegal declaration of the wrong candidate as winner of the Adamawa Supplementary Governorship election on Sunday, April 16, continues.

Yunusa-Ari had on the following day, Sunday, April 16 declared Binani as winner with no supporting data, even as the collation of election results was ongoing; a declaration which was annulled and voided by INEC Headquarters in Abuja, which subsequently suspended, a decision further ratified by the Federal Government via an approval by President Muhammadu Buhari, pending the completion of an investigation by the police.

Meanwhile, INEC has now formally filed charges against Ari after the police concluded their investigations into the April 16 incident.

The case was filed at the Adamawa State High Court, sitting in Yola, over his alleged unprofessional conduct in the recently concluded governorship election in the State.

The Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC) and National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, made the disclosure in a statement issued on Thursday.

Earlier, on July 4, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, during a meeting with RECs, confirmed the receiving case files from the Police following the conclusion of investigation into alleged electoral offences committed during the 2023 General Election, including the one involving Ari.

Explaining the reason for filing the charges at the Court in Adamawa, Okoye said “as provided by Section 145(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, an offence committed under the Act shall be triable in a Magistrate Court or a High Court of a State in which the offence is committed, or the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. 

“Furthermore, Section 145(2) of the Act provides that a prosecution under the Act shall be undertaken by legal officers of the Commission or any legal practitioner appointed by it.

“Having reviewed the case file from the Police which established a prima facie case against Barr. Hudu Yunusa Ari, the Commission has filed a six-count charge against him at the Adamawa State High Court sitting in Yola.

“Consequently, the Court has fixed Wednesday 12th July 2023 for commencement of trial.”

Okoye also affirmed that the Commission was working with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for the diligent prosecution of other cases.

The arrest of Yunusa-Ari became the subject of another controversy earlier in the week after a source had claimed that the former REC submitted himself to the police, and not arrested as claimed.

Confirming Oracle Today newspaper’s claims, Tuesday, which raised doubts over claims by the police that they have arrested the suspended fugitive Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Barrister Hudu Yunusa-Ari, an unnamed serving Nigerian senator has now claimed he personally drove the embattled electoral officer to the Police Headquarter in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to the senator, Ari was never arrested by the police as was claimed by the security agency, Tuesday.

Police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, had  confirmed that the force arrested the embattled former INEC REC, and that the commissioner was in their custody.

“The Nigeria Police Force hereby confirms the arrest of Barr. Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who was alleged to have announced the candidate of the All Progressives Congress winner of the gubernatorial elections during the recently concluded supplementary elections following calls for his arrest and investigation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the basis of alleged impropriety in the course of supplementary gubernatorial polls in the State. Barrister Ari, who was arrested by the Police Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team in Abuja on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023, is currently in Police custody and is being grilled to ascertain the motives and motivations behind his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa State.

“In addition, other officials and individuals culpable in the saga are being interrogated by the team,” the police statement read.

Ari had been declared missing by INEC, since April 17 after his illegal act of declaring a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ahmed (Binani) as winner and governor-elect in the Adamawa State Supplementary Governorship elections of Saturday, April 16.

Yunusa-Ari was reportedly driven to the Force Headquarters in Abuja by a Senator (names withheld) in honour of the invitation issued to him by the INTERPOL.

An unnamed source said the Adamawa REC “voluntarily reported to police, not arrested. The police invited him for interrogation on May 5th and he voluntarily went on May 2nd. He was driven to the Force Headquarters by a Senator.”

The police had on April 27, invited the Adamawa REC to report to its National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja office at Police Force Headquarters for interview by the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Interpol on Friday 5th May 2023 at 1000hrs.

The Interpol invitation to Yunusa-Ari is over his conduct during the April 15 governorship election in Adamawa State.

An investigative panel constituted by the then-IGP Usman Baba Alkali and headed by Garba Umar, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, the head of Interpol in Nigeria invited Yunusa-Ari to show up at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, which he honoured.

After the April incident, Yunusa-Ari was last seen boarding a private jet at the Yola airport to an undisclosed destination shortly after he attempted to subvert the Adamawa State supplementary governorship elections by illegally announcing a winner even as collation of results was still ongoing, Sunday, April 16.

Nearly two weeks after, the IGP acknowledged receiving the letter from the INEC National Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, requesting investigation and prosecution of the REC over his role in what the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa described as an electoral coup, just as the police chief had earlier also ordered the sacking of the then Adamawa Police Commissioner, Mohammed Barde from the state ‘with immediate effect.’

Yunusa-Aril was subsequently declared missing by INEC after he failed to show up at a meeting where he was invited to state his side in the incident, the following Monday.

INEC National Commissioner And Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, stated that the commission did not know the whereabouts of Yunusa-Ari, as the latter failed to show up at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja as directed and had not been answering his phone calls.

“We don’t know where he is because, after this particular incident, the commission wrote him and also called him on the phone. He never returned any of the calls, he never answered any of the calls.

“We asked him to report to the commission on Sunday we didn’t see him, we asked him to report on Monday we didn’t see him. So up till this moment, he has not reported and we don’t know his whereabouts,” Okoye said.

INEC had declared the action of Ari as void and illegal, as according to it, the job of announcing collated results was that of the Returning Officer in the state, Prof Mohammed Mele, just as the commission wondered why he (Ari) declared a winner while results from nearly 10 of the local government areas were still being collated.

However, in a twist to the controversy, Yunusa-Aril wrote a letter from his hideout, which also copied the INEC chairman, Yakubu, accusing some other senior officials of the commission of attempting to aid the rigging of the election, adding further that his name was wrongfully replaced as one of the officials to assist in the collation of results.