‘Yunusa-Ari honoured Interpol invitation voluntarily, not arrested by police’ – Report

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.

It would be recalled that the Force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Tuesday, confirmed that the police have 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.

However, Oracle Today raised questions over the surprise arrest of Ari who was declared missing by INEC, since April 17 after his illegal act of declaring a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator (Mrs) Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani) as winner and governor-elect in the Adamawa State Supplementary Governorship elections of Saturday, April 16.

Yunusa-Ari had on the following day, Sunday, April 17 declared Binani 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.

The police confirmed Yunusa-Ari’s arrest, Tuesday, after nearly three weeks in hiding after being declared missing on April 17, a day following his illegal declaration of a candidate as winner in the state’s supplementary governorship election.

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 Adamawa Police Commissioner, Mohammed Barde from the state ‘with immediate effect.’

A confirmation issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, subsequently also disclosed that following Barde’s suspension, the IGP Baba also directed the immediate redeployment of the Gombe State police commissioner, Etim Equa to Adamawa.

CP Barde accompanied the embattled Yunusa-Ari to the Adamawa State Governorship Election Collation Centre, and sat beside the INEC REC while the latter declared Senator Dahiru as winner, on Sunday, April 16, at the state’s Collation Centre in Yola.

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, last week, 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.

In a statement issued confirming the arrest of Yunusa-Ari, the police also did not disclose how the embattled INEC officer was arrested, or if he turned himself in, weeks after his disappearance and untraceable whereabouts.

Initially, days after the INEC reportedly announced that the commission has written the police chief to investigate and prosecute Ari, the Force spokesperson, Adejobi denied receiving any letter from the electoral body.

During a media briefing announcing the removal of the CP Barde as Adamawa police commissioner, Adejobi said the police is yet to receive any letter seeking probe of Ari from INEC, even as the REC was seen in full glare at the Yola airport boarding a private jet to an unknown destination.

From his hideout, Ari wrote to the police, INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu and other security agencies, accusing he electoral body of false allegation. This is even as the police maintained that the REC was still in hiding.

However, a fresh report has claimed that Ari actually turned himself in, and not arrested as claimed by the police.

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 unmaned source said “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 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, Tuesday.