The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the whereabouts of the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa State, Hudu Ari, is not known to the commission since his now controversial action during the supplementary governorship election in the state. Ari announced a winner for the supplementary governorship election on Sunday while collation was yet to be concluded.
Speaking on the suspended Adamawa REC, INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye, who spoke on a Channels Television programme Sunrise Daily monitored in Abuja said “we don’t know where he is at the moment. After this particular incident, the commission wrote to him and also called him o phone. He never answered ay of he calls and never returned any of them. We asked him to report to report to the Commission on Sunday, but did not see him. We asked him to report on Monday and did not see him either. Up to this moment, he has not reported n we don’t know where he is.”
On why the commission has not declared Ari wanted, Okoye argued that “declaring him wanted is the duty of the police. If they make determination that his presence is needed during investigations and he is nowhere to be found, it is within their prerogative to declare him wanted. I don’t know if he is under arrest at the moment or not. The responsibility given to the Commission under the law is to prosecute. The duty of investigations and arrest resides with the security agencies and in this case, the Nigeria Police Force which is the lead agency in terms of election security.
“We have written to the IGP detailing what the issues are and the infractions we believe that the REC has committed. We have asked him to investigate and if possible, make an arrest and if a prima facie case is established, he file should be made available to the commission to initiate the prosecution. So, we have followed the law, the processes and procedures.”
After suspending the REC, INEC reported his case to President Muhammadu Muhammadu Buhari, who on Thursday approved Ari’s suspension, pending the completion of an investigation by the Inspector General of Police on the conduct/actions of the REC during the Supplementary election in Adamawa State. The INEC National Commissioner said that the Commission had received a report from the Inspector General of Police and has commenced the process of prosecuting the controversial Adamawa REC.
“We wrote to the Inspector General of Police and Secretary to the Government of the Federation. We have received a response from the Inspector General of Police and they have already commenced an investigation. My understanding is that the moment the Inspector General of Police concludes the investigation regarding the REC and every other individual who is involved and a prima facie case is established against the REC the file will be made available to the commission and the commission will begin prosecution of the REC,” he added.
The commission also explained that it did not carry out any review of the declarations and return made on the presidential election because none of the parties in the election made any formal request for it as contained in the Electoral Act 2022. He added that in the fullness of time, Nigerians will come to realise that the 2023 elections is one of the best elections to ever be conducted in the country. He said though the commission had challenges wit uploading the presidential election results to the INEC Election Viewing portal, it is not enough to discredit the election.
Okoye said while the Electoral Act empowers the commission to review election result declared, such powers can only be exercised after a declaration and return has been made, adding that the clamor for a review of the presidential election was done when no declaration had been made. He declined to comment on the conduct of the elections saying “I am reluctant to analyse the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections as well as the governorship and state Assembly elections because some of the issues are already before the tribunals.”
He disclosed that the Commission has a policy of reviewing every election with a view to imbibing the lessons learnt. He said “after every election, the Commission engages in both external and internal evaluation of the conduct of the elections to learn valuable lessons and where mistakes are made, know how to remedy these mistakes. At a very reflective and rationale moment, we will come to see that this election will turn out to be one of the best elections ever conducted in this country.
“The election is like a revolutionary situation. I say this because if you look at the whole gamut of the election, I do not think that it will be fair to reduce the conduct of the 2023 general elections to the issue of result upload alone. If you look at section 43 of the electoral act 2022, it makes it optional for any political party that wants to nominate polling or party agents to the 176,606 poling units where we deployed election materials to do so. Four political parties, APC, PDP, NNPP and LP nominated over 170,000 poling agents. What that mean is that at the level of the poling units where the election took place, they were there.
“The law is that the moment votes are segregated, counted and entered into form EC8a which is the polling unit result sheet, a copy will be retained by the Commission, a copy will be given to the police and copies will be given to the party agents. It means that any party that deployed agents will have copies of the polling unit results.Secondly, you have to analyse elections from a holistic perspective and not only from the point of result upload because that is what is trending.
“The question of whether section 64 is mandatory in terms of result upload, whether the issue of collation revolves around result upload and other issues emanating from it, has been submitted to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal and at the fullness of time, you will see that the Commission has done very well. Yes, we had challenges regarding upload of presidential election results and we informed Nigerians about the challenge.
“You will agree with me that there was result upload during the governorship and state Assembly elections. But you will agree that the Commission did well, but we cannot reduce the entire 2023 election to the challenge we had with the presidential upload. INEC has not done any review of the presidential election declaration because nobody has asked for it in writing. As at the time they were clamouring for a review, the declaration and return had not been made.”
[Nation]