The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and the Yiaga Africa have condemned yesterday morning’s declaration of Senator A’ishatu Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, as winner of the Adamawa State governorship election.
This is contained in separate statements on the verified twitter handles of the two organisations.
The Resident Electoral Commission (REC) for Adamawa State, Prof. Yusuf Hudu Ari, had declared Binani as winner of the election under controversial circumstances.
This is as the State’s Collation Officer, Prof. Mohammed Mele, whose responsibility is to announce the results and declare winner was nowhere to be found.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) had, however, nullified the declaration and suspended the collation of the results with immediate effect.
National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, said this yesterday in a statement on the commission’s verified Twitter handle.
“The REC, Returning Officer and all involved are hereby invited to the
Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja immediately,” Okoye said adding that detailed statement will follow.
The CDD said it strongly condemned the announcement by the REC, saying, “The laws and procedures guiding Nigeria’s elections are such that only the Returning Officer can make such a declaration, which makes this recent announcement null and void”.
