THE National Commissioner and Chairman of Voter Education of the Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC, Festus Okoye, has described the action of the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa State, Hudu Ari during last weekend’s Supplementary governorship election in Adamawa as an aberration.
INEC suspended Ari a day after he controversially announced the election results while collation was not yet concluded.
Okoye said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, that Ari’s action is in isolation from what other Resident Electoral Commissioners of INEC have been doing in other states.
“What he did is just an aberration, I know that we have very fine Resident Electoral Commissioners in various states of the federation and they know the extent of their powers and they have been conforming to the duties assigned to them by the commission,’’ Okoye said.
“So I want to view his behaviour as an isolated event and do not represent what our Resident Electoral Commissioners are all about because I know that some of them work assiduously to ensure that we deliver on our mandate,” he added.
“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.