Fintiri’s declaration as Adamawa Guber election winner has exonerated INEC of wrongdoings – Group

A civil group, Nigerian Discussion board for Democracy, has stated that the ultimate declaration of Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri because the winner of Saturday’s supplementary election by the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee, INEC, has proven that the fee has no skeleton in its cabinet over the conduct of polls within the nation.

Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, within the state, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, had on Sunday stoked controversy when he introduced Senator Aisha Dahiru Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, because the winner of the election, thus elicited protests from members of the Peoples Democratic Occasion, PDP, current on the state collation centre in Yola, the state capital.

Yunusa-Ari was later requested by the INEC to keep away from its workplace in Adamawa whereas the Administrative Secretary takes cost till additional discover.

The group, in a press release collectively signed by its Nationwide Coordinator, Bala Garba James; Nationwide Secretary, Mr. James Adebayo Olu and the Public Relations Officer,
Chief Edem Moses, and made accessible to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, stated it was conscious of how some politicians it described as anti-democratic parts tried to arm-twist the electoral course of within the nation.

“Of word is the event in Adamawa State governorship election which was marred with controversies, however which the electoral umpire insisted on doing the precise factor irrespective of which ox is gored,” it said.

The group maintained that INEC’s swift response to the unlawful declaration of Adamawa State governorship election outcomes was proof that the fee’s boss has no skeleton in his cabinet.

It went additional: “The INEC nationwide chairman learn a riot act in his pre-election briefing to all of the Resident Electoral Commissioners, REC after they went via orientation and handed with pointers of how elections needs to be performed throughout states. This exhibits the frantic effort of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s conduct of free and honest election, regardless of pitfalls because of some unexpected circumstances.”

The group was emphatic that INEC’s honest disposition led to the emergence of a sizeable variety of opposition lawmakers, because the Peoples Democratic Occasion, PDP, have 35 seats, Labour Occasion, LP 8, the New Nigeria Political Occasion, NNPP, the Social Democratic Occasion, SDP, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA and the Younger Progressives Congress, YPP, have one senators-elect every, awaiting inauguration within the first week of June.

“The opposition political events additionally did effectively within the decrease legislative chamber in addition to State Homes of Meeting throughout states.

“With the final elections concluded with runoffs on Saturday, the Discussion board expressed optimism that the proposed ‘Electoral Offences Fee’ would complement INEC’s effort, if handed into legislation,” it said, calling on the Nigerian parliament to move the invoice into legislation within the curiosity of free and honest election in future.

It counseled the INEC for conducting the most effective elections because the return of democracy to the nation in 1999, believing that the electoral umpire organized this 12 months’s normal elections in such a manner that they had been typically peaceable and recorded much less casualties in contrast with different earlier ones.

The Discussion board, nevertheless, famous that the peaceable conduct of the elections was not with out huge challenges confronted by the fee regardless of the amended Electoral Act, 2022, which was meant to assist the electoral processes.