THE Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC, says the announcement made by the Resident Electoral Commissioner – REC, Yunusa Ari in Adamawa State, declaring Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru winner of the governorship election, is ‘null and void’.
INEC said in a thread of tweets on Sunday, said the election process was clearly not concluded before the announcement was made.
INEC National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Barr. Festus Okoye, who made this known, said that the action of the REC is a usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer. “It is null, void and of no effect”, he said.
He therefore, said that following this action, the collation of results of the supplementary election has now been suspended.
Before the collation exercise was suspended on Saturday night, results from 10 LGAs had been announced — and Binani was trailing Ahmadu Fintiri, the incumbent governor and PDP candidate.
The collation of results from the remaining 10 LGAs was expected to commence by 11am on Sunday, and Mele Lamido, the returning officer for the Adamawa governorship election, was not present when Ari announced Binani as the winner of the election.
According to the constitution, Lamido is the rightful official empowered to declare the winner of the election.
