It is no longer news that Hudu Yunusa – Ari, the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa state who has been in hiding has been found. A statement last Tuesday by the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, confirmed that Yunusa-Ari was undergoing interrogation in police custody over his illegal declaration of the results of the last Adamawa state governorship election. The news now is that the man has been granted bail amidst continuing investigation. But with the high level of public interest generated over the illegal declaration, it would certainly irritate those who suspect that delay tactics may be used to sweep the case under the carpet. To start with, a few issues about basic facts on the subject are hazy. Who arrested the suspended REC and where, when, and how was he arrested?

If Yunusa-Ari was the one who gave himself up to the police as he allegedly promised in an interview with the famous BBC Hausa service, it is only fair for the public to know that no concrete effort was made to arrest the man who was in the company of top security officers at the point of making the illegal declaration. In addition, considering that the declaration was televised for public viewing and that the man admitted in his BBC interview that what he did was within the law, it is difficult to comprehend what the police is investigating now. Having helped to secure the alleged offender, the police should immediately hand him over to INEC which is statutorily mandated to prosecute electoral offenders.  This position had been determined as far back as 1987 when the Supreme Court ruled in the case involving Gani Fawehinmi SAN, that a body which has powers to prosecute a case is also inherently empowered to investigate the case. What is more, between INEC and the police, who is better positioned to identify a breach of any guideline, rule, regulation or enabling law of the same INEC?

In the celebrated case of the manipulation of election results brought before the court during the 2019 general elections, INEC promptly and successfully investigated and prosecuted Professor Peter Ogban, the then Collation/Returning Officer for Akwa Ibom North-west Senatorial election.  The court rejected the argument of the defence that the Professor had not been investigated by the police. By simply following the ruling in the Fawehinmi case, Justice, Augustine Odokwo who presided in the Ogban case jailed the Professor for 3 years, while holding that INEC did not require police investigation. The same approach is what INEC ought to follow now in the Yunusa-Ari case. If it does otherwise, it could be accused of having a hidden agenda in the instant case. In fact, it is not in the interest of INEC to allow further delay or to do anything to suggest a contemplation of abdication from its responsibility in this particular case whose outcome is eagerly awaited by all lovers of Democracy, home and abroad.

There is indeed a school of thought that believes that the illegality that was perpetuated in the Adamawa governorship election could have been prevented if INEC had promptly handled reports that Yunusa-Ari was visibly partisan in his disposition during the election.  The Peoples Democratic Party PDP had publicly appealed to INEC to redeploy the man after a few provocative partisan activities. Whereas INEC may have rightly ignored the appeal on the ground that Nigerian politicians have an inclination to raise false alarms, it was unwise to have retained Yunusa-Ari to handle the run-off election which followed the inconclusive main election in which a leaked audio had been circulated to suggest that the REC instructed some specific staff of INEC to work for the election of the APC candidate.

An electoral body ought to be conscious and sensitive at all times that it is not enough to seek to be above board; ensuring that people can easily perceive INEC as above board matters more. Even if the allegations against Yunusa-Ari appeared baseless, it would have been safer to rest the REC and replace him with another person of the commission’s choice. For failing to do that, some superior officers at the top now stand the risk of being pulled down by the embattled REC in the coming days. If by sheer luck that does not happen, the huge image problem which Yunusa-Ari’s behaviour has bequeathed to INEC would for a long time to come be hard to repair in a society that is largely dissatisfied with the conduct of the last general election as shown in the about 800 election petitions currently before different election tribunals nationwide. Are all the aggrieved petitioners bad losers?

The case of the suspended REC of Adamawa State was particularly scandalous. First, it amounted to usurpation of the powers of a returning officer for him to take over the duty of announcing an election result. Second, as if he was assured of security cover, senior security officers were with him during the fake declaration of results. Third, both the REC and all those present at the ill-fated gathering knew as of fact that the declaration was premature as it was made about 2 hours before the scheduled time for the continuation of the collation of votes preparatory to the declaration of a winner. In which case, total votes cast at the election had not been determined at the point the REC made his declaration. The implication of what has been said so far is that efforts at arresting Yunusa-Ari would naturally have been less than feeble; and so it seemed.

It is doubtful if the whereabouts of the REC were really unknown to security agencies. As one investigative newspaper revealed, immediately after announcing the fake winner of the election, Yunusa-Ari was flown to Abuja from Yola in a private jet with registration number – (NG) 5N-IKO. The newspaper even published the model and serial number of the aircraft which reportedly landed in Abuja 40minutes later.  It can therefore be argued that the illegal declaration was a well-organized plot which included the charter of a private aircraft to provide a safe escape for the fugitive REC. The owner of the aircraft which is registered in Nigeria for aviation services could have been reached to unravel the person or organization which entered into a contract with his company to fly out the REC.

The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) which broadcast the declaration can also be helpful in identifying the sponsors of the illegal event. I do not however subscribe to the calls on the broadcast regulator to sanction the station. Those calling for sanctions are only interested in underscoring the double standards in broadcast regulation in Nigeria in which the reaction of the regulator would have been drastically different if the broadcast was done by a private station. Certainly, the NTA broadcast was not the handiwork of a roving reporter who just ran into the event. It was a scheduled coverage for which the station must have been given the details of the event including take-off time, duration and sponsor who ordinarily would be charged millions of naira. I hear that these days the NTA is occasionally coerced by persons in the corridors of power to cover certain events pro bono unlike my days as DG of NTA where even the presidency had to pay ahead of coverage.   

If the coverage was free of charge, then the case of Yunusa-Ari may be far more complicated than the ordinary person can see.  Anyone who imagines that it was a project of the ruling party may not be too far from the correct answer. This is because history has shown that ruling parties in Nigeria do everything humanly possible including illegalities for its members to be re-elected. When the PDP was in power, it did all it could to frustrate the Card Reader. On its part, the APC has not only sought to emasculate the BVAS, it has gone into history as the party that has imposed the highest number of partisan electoral commissioners on INEC. Whatever is the case, the prosecution of the Adamawa case and others should not be further delayed if INEC is interested in bringing to book the sponsors of electoral malpractices in Nigeria to pave the way for better elections in the future.