Declare suspended INEC Adamawa REC wanted, CSO tells Police

The Partners for Electoral Reform, a Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has asked the police to as a matter of urgency declare Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Adamawa State. wanted.

The Chairman of the CSO, Ezenwa Nwagwu, made the call in a statement in Abuja on Friday following reports that the suspended REC had written to the police from his hideout.

Nwagwu said that Yunusa-Ari should be immediately declared wanted if he was not ready to voluntarily submit himself for investigation as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The suspended and now fugitive REC of Adamawa State has written to the Police from his hideout. He has been summoned to the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja since April 17.

“This is 10 days and counting, he failed to show up. Meanwhile, the Police is said to have commenced an investigation into the travesty of his announcement of illegal result for the Adamawa Governorship election.

“Now he has written a four-page letter to IGP dated April 20 submitting an apparently unsolicited report to the police by illegally using the Commission’s letterhead after he was directed to stay away from office by INEC and his immediate suspension by the President.

“He is doing himself a disservice by going into hiding. Implied by his action is an admission of guilt which is apparent from his sudden disappearance,” Nwagwu said.

He advised Yunusa-Ari to be courageous to answer the invitation of the inspector-general of Police and make an official statement rather than resort to letter writing

Nwagwu said the four-page letter that the suspended REC or his accomplices leaked to the media shows the REC’s confused state of mind.

“The title of it seems to be a report of the supplementary governorship election held on April 15.

“From its opening paragraph, the letter is intended for INEC but ironically addressed to the IGP.”

Nwagwu said that the REC in the letter went straight into attack on both the motive and credibility of the two national commissioners deployed to oversee the conduct of the supplementary and the conclusion of state governors’ election.

“The two Commissioners should be and ought to be capable of defending themselves from the allegations levelled against them.

“Any comment here will be prejudicial to the ongoing police investigation and possible prosecution of the REC.”

Nwagwu said that as a keen election observer, the letter showed the REC profound lack of understanding of basic provisions of the electoral legal framework and his responsibilities as a REC.