A joint panel comprising officers of the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Security, and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission has invited the suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, over his conduct in the April 15 supplementary elections in the state.
The investigation panel set up by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, asked Yunusa-Ari to show up at the Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja, The PUNCH gathered.
The panel is headed by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police and Head of Interpol, Nigeria, Garba Umar, who was appointed as the Head of the election planning, monitoring and evaluation team, in the build-up to the 2023 general elections.
The spokesperson for the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Funmi Eguaoje, confirmed the development to our correspondent on Monday.
The PUNCH reports that Yunusa-Ari had stirred controversy after declaring the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Aisha Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, as the winner of the Adamawa State governorship election when the collation of results was yet to be completed.
This was followed by an announcement by INEC, proclaiming his declaration as null and void.
Yunusa-Ari was summoned by INEC to its headquarters in Abuja but failed to honour the summons.
The electoral umpire further wrote to the NPF asking it to investigate, and if found culpable, prosecute Yunusa-Ari over alleged electoral infractions.
Following the receipt of the letter, the IG subsequently ordered an investigative team to work in collaboration with INEC on the matter while the electoral umpire revealed that it was not aware of the whereabouts of Yunusa-Ari.
On April 20, The PUNCH reports that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), approved Yunusa-Ari’s suspension pending the conclusion of an investigation by the police.
Confirming Yunusa-Ari’s invitation on Monday, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, the FCID PRO, Funmi Eguaoje, said the matter is under the jurisdiction of the investigation panel, and not solely a police matter.
Eguaoje said, “The suspended Adamawa REC has been invited by a joint panel comprising the police, DSS, and INEC officials. The committee was set up to investigate the matter, and the chairman of the committee is AIG Garba. But it is not solely a police matter, the case is under the joint panel’s jurisdiction.
“The REC was invited by the joint committee, not the police. And I can’t confirm whether or not he has honoured the invite. I only know that he has been invited by the panel.”
