By Billy Graham Abel, Yola
The PDP governorship Campaign Council in Adamawa has called for the immediate removal and arrest of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Adamawa Yunusa Hudu Arri, over manipulation of collation process to favour the APC governorship candidate, Aishatu Dahiru.
The campaign council said it has refused to join issues with the APC since the commencement of the governorship elections despite the humongous lies it has been peddling on the cyberspace, feeding Nigeria, Africa and the whole world with untrue stories, even claiming that she has won the elections, a cheap lie peddled to gain global sympathy.
Felix Tangwami made this known at a press briefing, held Thursday, in Yola, Adamawa State.
Tangwami, the Deputy Director, Southern Adamawa Campaign council of the PDP said they are concerned with how the the connivance of the APC and INEC has thrown the country into disrepute and made mockery of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Felix Tangwami said, “The PDP, has reliably gathered that in another attempt to influence the outcome of the rerun elections in the state, INEC has again went ahead to inflate the number of polling units where elections would be held in the state from 69 to 77, against what was officially declared at the end of collation of results at the collation center.”
“There is no reason why the REC in Adamawa state has not been removed because he has been nabbed in a recorded phone conversation instructing the Presiding officer to manipulate the elections results in favour of the APC candidate.
“He has been questioned and he has not denied it. What beats our imagination is how Mahmood Yakubu has not deemed it right to sack him.
“We are calling on Mahmood Yakubu, the international community and the world at large to take note of the actions of INEC in Adamawa,” Felix Tangwami said.
“As I speak with you today, we have received information that the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Adamawa state submitted to INEC Headquarters in Abuja that reruns will be held in 77 polling units instead of 69 for governorship which is at variance with what was declared by the returning officer, Mohammed Mele; this means an addition of eight polling units from Hudi Yunusa Ari,” Tangwami said.
Mele had relied on the electoral guidelines to order for a repeat election in 69 polling units because the ballots at stake exceeded the leading margin, according to him.
The incumbent governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who polled 421,524 votes, as against Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani’s 399,275 votes but could not be declared the winner because of total PVCs collected in the affected units; which is 37,016, as collated by the state Returning Officer, Mele Mohammed.
Based on the leaked document made available to Daily Sun, the total number of polling units affected across the state have now shoot up to 77 as againt the 69 with an increased total number of 46,949, instead of 41,016 registered voters and 40,171 PVCs collected as againt the 37,016 PVCs collected.
Tangwami said, it is only in Adamawa that three elections rests were available for considerations and one of the results was only available to INEC and the APC.
“And the content of that result was similar to the results that was in circulation when only 15 of the 21 local governments results were collated.
“It was clear that there was a connivance between the REC and APC to smuggle a doctored results which was foiled.”
He added that, “At the collation center the compromised REC, Hudu Arri, refused to accept the result provided by the Returning officer of Fufore LGAs and resorted to the IREV but still maintained that there was still a third copy of results which was only privy to himself and the APC.”
Felix said, even with this outright violation of the electoral process, Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC boss should have sacked the REC.
He alerts that, while the state awaits the reruns, the whole world must pay attention to Hudu’s attempt to introduce new polling units, bumping the numbers to 77 units for elections, against the earlier 69 PUs scheduled for the reruns.