Atiku To INEC: Prepare For Consequences Of Declaring ‘Loser As Winner’ Of Adamawa Governorship

Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president and 2023 presidential candidate, has claimed that the controversial declaration of Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani) as the winner of Saturday’s supplementary governorship in Adamawa State was premeditated.

Atiku said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must have promised a “false victory” to Binani, resulting in her declaration as winner of the election before the conclusion of collation.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate was controversially announced as winner of the election by the Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa, instead of the returning officer for the poll.

Prior to the announcement, the incumbent Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, was reportedly leading in the results collated so far.

Moments after Yunusa made the declaration, INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, declared it “null and void”.

Okoye said the REC’s action was an “usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer” whose lawful duty it is to announce the outcome of the poll.

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He added, “It is null, void and of no effect.
Consequently, the collation of results of the supplementary election is hereby suspended.”

But reacting in a statement issued by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, on Sunday, Atiku said INEC must be prepared to take responsibility for any negative outcome of declaring a “loser as winner” .

According to the former vice-president who contested the 2023 presidential election on the PDP platform, there’s allegedly a plot to undermine democracy in the country and “provoke violence” in Adamawa State.

His words, “Here in Adamawa, we are witnesses to a novel practice in election management where a Resident Electoral Commissioner announced the loser of an election as a winner.

“It is not in doubt that INEC has approached the Adamawa State election with a preset agenda of declaring the APC at all cost.

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“It is, therefore, on this note that we wish to call the attention of the world to the scheme being perpetrated by INEC to compromise the electoral wishes of the people of Adamawa State.

“We also wish to inform the world that such behaviour by INEC has a natural consequence of unsettling the peace and security of the society.

“We have seen how INEC conducted the February 25 and March 18 elections against the run of play and challenging cheated candidates to go to the court, knowing full well the agenda that they are up to.

“It must be put on record that the people of Adamawa State will not allow themselves to cheated three times in a row. It must also be put on record that whatever the consequences of the scheme being scripted, both the INEC and those vested with state powers should be blamed for the consequences of such actions.

“That the APC candidate has a prepared acceptance speech is a pointer to the guarantee of a false victory which the INEC must have promised her.

“Recall that this was the same Resident Electoral Commissioner who pressured the Returning Officer to manipulate the results of the contentious Fufore Local Government Area in the March 18 governorship election.

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“The people of Adamawa shall not allow this injustice to pass without being challenged.

“We demand the immediate resumption of the collation of results and its finalisation today.

“It is also our demand that the Adamawa REC and any other parties complicit in this treasonable act should be arrested immediately and prosecuted to the full extent of the law to serve as a deterrent to anti-democratic forces who may want to torpedo our democracy and provoke violence in our country”.

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