Police probe on Adamawa REC started but his whereabouts unknown, says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it does not know the whereabouts of the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Adamawa State, Hudu Ari.

INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye disclosed this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday.

Ari stirred controversy when he announced APC’s Aisha Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, as the winner of the Saturday supplementary election while the collation was not yet concluded.

INEC voided the result and eventually declared incumbent governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner.

Fintiri polled 430,788 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Binani, who scored 398,788 votes.

INEC thereafter suspended Ari and directed that he should avoid the commission’s office until further notice.

When asked about Ari’s whereabouts on Channels Television, Okoye said all efforts to reach him proved futile.

“We don’t know where he is because, after this particular incident, the Commission wrote him and also called him on the phone. He never returned any of the calls, he never answered any of the calls.

“We asked him to report to the Commission on Sunday we didn’t see him, we asked him to report on Monday we didn’t see him. So up till this moment, he has not reported and we don’t know his whereabouts.

“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.

Okoye added that the moment the IGP concludes the investigation regarding the REC and every other individual involved and a prima facie case is established against the REC, the file will be made available to INEC and the commission will begin prosecution of the REC.