April 15 supplementary elections and Adamawa REC

 

After the conduct of national and state elections on February 25 and March 18, 2023 respectively, the Independent National Electoral Commission was only able to conclude elections on the first ballot in 26 states governorship, 104 senatorial, 329 federal and 935 state constituency elections including the presidential poll. Narrow margin of lead between two leading candidates occasioned by violence, over-voting, glitches from Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System and community resistance to conduct of elections necessitated some of the polls being declared inconclusive hence the need for supplementary elections. On March 27, INEC announced Saturday, April 15, 2023 as the date for supplementary governorship elections in Adamawa and Kebbi states, five senatorial districts, 31 federal and 58 state assembly constituencies.

Inconclusive polls became part of our political lexicon since 2009 when INEC declared the Ekiti governorship election between Chief Segun Oni of the Peoples Democratic Party and Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the then Action Congress of Nigeria inconclusive over the Ido-Osi, Oye Local Government result. Since then, there have been several inconclusive elections with the most notable being those that took place in Imo State in 2011 and 2015; Abia, Taraba, Kogi and Bayelsa states in 2015. Osun State governorship election of September 22, 2018, was also declared inconclusive.

One of the sore points of the 2019 general elections was the high number of inconclusive elections it recorded. From the February 23, 2019 national elections, INEC had to declare seven senatorial districts and 24 federal constituency elections inconclusive. This cut across 14 states. After the March 9, 2019 state and FCT Area council elections, six governorship elections and three area council chairmanship elections were also declared inconclusive. They were those of Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi, Sokoto, Benue and Plateau states.

Sunday PUNCH of April 16, 2023, reported that the supplementary elections held in some states on Saturday (April 15) were marred by violence, with four persons killed in Kano and Kebbi states, and pockets of violence and low turnout of voters recorded in other states. The newspaper gathered that apart from the killings in the two states, the exercise in Edo, Ekiti, Adamawa, Rivers and Anambra states was characterised by voter apathy, vote-buying and late arrival of election materials. The Nation newspaper online edition of Saturday, April 15, reported that six persons were feared killed during the supplementary elections held in Ikono /Ini and Abak federal constituencies of Akwa Ibom State. A National Youths Service Corps member, serving as Ad-hoc staff, was also reportedly shot and critically injured.

The situation in Ikono/Ini was so deplorable that INEC had to cancel the results of the supplementary poll.  The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom, Dr Cyril Omorogbe, disclosed this to journalists in his office in Uyo shortly after the election describing the exercise in the area as abysmal. Omorogbe said the election were cancelled in all the 17 polling units that the rerun took place as a result of obvious electoral offences, ranging from snatching of electoral materials, including Bimodal Voters Accreditation System.

The most worrisome development happened in Adamawa State where the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari who is a lawyer, decided to breach the electoral code by usurping the role of the Returning Officer for the governorship poll. He reportedly came earlier than the scheduled time of 11am that was agreed to for the resumption of collation last Sunday, April 16 and made a declaration that Senator Aishatu Dahiru won the governorship poll. He did this without announcing the final figures scored by each of the candidates and unmindful that the uploaded results of the 69 poling units on IREV portal (where the supplementary election took place) when added to the earlier score by the PDP candidate who is also the incumbent governor of the state gives the latter victory.

It is noteworthy that controversy between INEC and PDP over the APC governorship candidate first broke out when PDP accused INEC of patronising Binani’s printing company to provide financial muscle for her to prosecute her electoral campaign. The contract, reportedly worth N434m, was awarded for the printing of election results sheets and security documents for the general elections. In a statement on Thursday, March 16, 2023, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the contract was handed out after competitive and transparent bidding. He said that INEC ensured that a due diligence inspection process was carried out and that the APC governorship candidate was not listed as one of the directors of Binani Printing Press Limited.

SaharaReporters, an online news medium, in a purportedly leaked audio on March 19, 2023, alleged  that the INEC REC for Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, directed an election official to rig the governorship election in favour of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Aishatu Dahiru. It further claimed that when contacted, Yunusa-Ari denied the allegation.  It is surprising that INEC did not deem it fit to redeploy or ask the REC to stay away from the conduct of the supplementary election until he now went for broke by openly making a declaration he is not empowered by law to make.

I however commend INEC for promptly nullifying the wrong declaration made by Yunusa-Ari. According to an April 16 statement by Okoye, “The action of the REC is a usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer and therefore null, void and of no effect. Consequently, the collation of the result of the supplementary election held yesterday (Saturday) April 15, 2023 is suspended forthwith. The REC for Adamawa State and all other officials involved in the process are hereby directed to report immediately to INEC headquarters in Abuja.”

Okoye further said that the commission was deeply disturbed by the harassment of two National Commissioners deployed to the state to ensure a peaceful and credible supplementary election, urging the security agencies to provide them with necessary security and ensure that nothing untoward befalls them.

Meanwhile, there is an allegation of N2bn made by an official of the Department of State Services seen in a viral video being molested by some protesting Adamawa youths. The source of the bribe needs to be thoroughly investigated and the person(s) who offered the bribe be severely punished. I consider the purported “acceptance speech” by Senator Aisha Dahiru, the APC governorship candidate in Adamawa as hasty and premature. Why can’t she wait for the Certificate of Return to be issued to her first. Did she really think she won the election or did she want to impose a fait accompli on the electoral management body?

A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, refused to hear an ex-parte motion filed by the APC candidate and Justice Inyang Ekwo consequently adjourned the matter until April 26 for hearing of the motion and an address on jurisdiction.

However, I do hope she is aware of provision of Section 65 (1) which empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission to review wrong declarations.

As for the Adamawa REC, while it is a welcome development that he has been suspended from his official duties, it is not enough. The Nigerian Bar Association should strike his name off its membership list for rubbishing the image of the legal profession. INEC should also press criminal charges against him. According to Section 120 (4) of Electoral Act 2022, “Any person who announces or publishes an election result knowing the same to be false or which is at variance with the signed certificate of return commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 36 months.” That’s the punishment Yunusa-Ari deserves.