ON THE RUN OVER ELECTORAL FRAUD:
DISGRACED Adamawa Resident Commissioner, HUDU YUNUSA ARI Goes into Hiding for Fear of Arrest, Making Final Plans to Escape Overseas
…last sighted after controversial Gubernatorial Election announcement flying on a Private Jet Registration Number: (NG) 5N-IKO, Serial Number: 258547, Model No: S-0642EC
*‘Suspended Adamawa REC, Yunusa has remained elusive, incommunicado, and disappeared without a single trace. We can not reach him on his cellphone. He disregards our multiple invitations to INEC Headquarters; We cannot even locate his whereabouts. We are asking the Nigeria Police to declare him wanted and help us pick him up’-INEC Information Chairman & Voter Education, FESTUS Okoye
*Leaked Phone Audio Conversation between YUNUSA & another INEC official, Hammajam Mohammed reads: “Yunusa-Ari (REC): Is that our official from Gombi?
Mohammed: No sir, I’m from Fufore, sir
Yunusa-Ari (REC): I’ve heard what happened. However, do whatever you can to help this woman (Binani), that’s why I gave you an extra results sheet. Please, just do anything to make her scale through”
*“If Yunusa Ari is arrested, and he opens his mouth, powerful people that are high and mighty in Nigeria, especially politicians, law enforcement officers and INEC officials will be implicated. He knows too much..his confession will rock the foundation of the country. That is why he has to find a way to hide himself for his own safety”-Top Security operative
*“I have ordered the immediate suspension of Adamawa REC, Yunusa, direct full investigation of every law enforcement officials found culpable’-BUHARI
*BY HILARU MOHAMMED/SPECIAL CRIME/ ELECTORAL News Reporter, Abuja & GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/AMERICA Senior Investigative Editor
THIS IS NOT THE BEST OF TIMES FOR YUNUSA ARI, a suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Adamawa State whose hands got ‘stock in cookie jar’ for leading an election fraud, violating Electoral Laws of Nigeria and speedily declaring Senator Aisha Dahiru Binnani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election, while the result of the election were being collated in half of the state. Against all protests made by polling agents, human right activists; hue and cry made by both local and foreign election observers for Yunusa to slow down, take a break and follow the rules guiding the election processes, he dumped all their reactions. Ever since then, Yunusa had been on the run, hiding at odd places for fear of arrests, prosecution by security operatives.
But an undercover investigation conducted by Naija Standard Newspaper Editorial Board confirmed that Yunusa was last sighted flying on a private aircraft jet with Registration Number: (NG) 5N-IKO, Serial Number: 258547, Model No: S-0642EC after making the controversial announcement. A top law enforcement officer with Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, attached to the fugitive Adamawa State suspended REC (who was not authorized to speak to the press and for fear of implication would remain anonymous) told our correspondent that Yunusa did not expect the backlash and blow-back that arose against him ‘like-a-tornado’ across the country after he deliberately violated Electoral Act.
“Yunusa is in hiding. Yes, he is afraid of his safety. I was with him at the airport in company of some security operatives when we followed him to ensure he boarded a private jet outside Yola after he made that announcement where he claimed Senator Aisha Binnani won the election. As far as many of us are concerned Yunusa did what he did to enjoy a life of comfort and secure his family’s future. He was sure everything would be smooth and there would be silence across the country after he made that pronunciation. He knows a lot of underhand dealings that happened, who-and-who in Nigeria polity who are powerful individuals that engaged in the act of bribery. If Yunusa dare opens his mouth, many of these VIPs, politicians, security operatives will be implicated,” confided the NSCDC officer.
This same NSCDC officer reveals that after the backlash, Yunusa had gone into hiding and he’s on the advanced stage of making plans to escape Nigeria. If he succeeds, he will be using the country’s porous border, allegedly ‘greasing the palms of immigration and customs officers’ to help facilitate him into Niger Republic or Cameroon. “Yunusa’s escape into Niger Republic or Cameroon is far better than his arrest and confession which will rock the foundation of Nigeria. And open the nation into uncharted territories”, added the law enforcement agent.
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that its suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, has disappeared without trace.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter education committee, Mr Festus Okoye, disclosed this on Friday while featuring on Channels TV programme.
Okoye said, “We don’t know where he is because, after this particular incident. The Commission sent a letter to 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.”
On if he thought Ari would be declared wanted for failing to report to the commission or answer its calls, Okoye said that was the responsibility of the Nigerian Police.
He said: “Well, that is the responsibility of the Nigerian police. If they feel that his presence is absolutely needed during the investigation and he is nowhere to be found, it is their prerogative and discretion to declare him wanted.”
It could be recalled that Yunusa declared Senator Binnani winner of the election.
Few minutes later, the Commission’s headquarters, Abuja nullified the result as declared by him, and consequently invited to Abuja.
Later after the suspension, the result collation continued. Finally the incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri was officially declared winner of the election on Tuesday.
On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a probe of all the security operatives involved in the illegal act.
Yunusa-Ari Was Flown Out Of Yola In Private Jet After Wrongfully Declaring Binani As Governor-Elect
On Thursday evening, President Muhammadu Buhari approved Yunusa-Ari’s immediate suspension pending the completion of an investigation by the Inspector General of Police on his conduct/actions during the election.
Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Residential Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State suspended for violating the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022 was flown out of Yola, the state capital, in a private jet on Sunday.
Yunusa-Ari was flown out of the city immediately after he illegally and wrongfully announced Aishatu Dahiru Binani, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the governorship election in the state.
This followed a supplementary governorship election held in the state on Saturday. Yunusa-Ari on Sunday declared Binani as the winner of the poll even though the collation of results of the supplementary election had yet to be completed.
He bizarrely allocated 221,303 votes to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, which represented a 50 per cent shortfall from his initial 400,000 votes.
It was reported that the Adamawa State governorship election had been declared inconclusive, with Governor Fintiri leading with 421,524.
Declaring the polls inclusive, the returning officer, Prof Mohammed Mele, said the election was inconclusive because the number of cancelled votes exceeded the margin of victory.
When collation resumed after the supplementary election on Saturday, April 15, the returning officer, Mele, after the collating results from about 10 local government areas, adjourned collation to 11:00 am on Sunday.
However, as early as 9:00 am, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Yunusa-Ari, in company with the police commissioner in charge of election duties, Mohammed Barde, and some other heads of security agencies, announced Binani as the winner.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, however, swiftly nullified the announcement and invited the REC to its headquarters in Abuja.
On Thursday evening, President Muhammadu Buhari approved Yunusa-Ari’s immediate suspension pending the completion of an investigation by the Inspector General of Police on his conduct/actions during the election.
‘I have ordered the immediate suspension of Adamawa REC, Yunusa and direct full investigation of every law enforcement officials found culpable’-BUHARI
The President, through a statement by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, also directed his immediate prosecution, if found liable.
For the records, Yunusa-Ari was flown to Abuja from Yola immediately after announcing Binani as the winner of the election.
He was flown out of Yola in a private jet with registration number-(NG) 5N-IKO. The identity of the owner of the Raytheon Hawker 800XP could not be verified, as further investigation only showed it was registered to an ‘unknown owner’.
The aircraft’s model reads S-0642EC while its serial number is 258547.
Investigation showed that the private aircraft left Yola at exactly 12.58 pm on Sunday, shortly after Yunusa-Ari made the announcement, and touched down in Abuja at exactly 1.38 pm, after flying for 40 minutes.
The aircraft left Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos at 7.09 pm on Thursday, April 20, 2023 and was last seen near Ibadan, Oyo State at 7.28 pm.
Leaked Audio of Yunusa & Hammajam Mohammed, another INEC officer on March 19, 2023:
On March 19, a day after the governorship election in Adamawa State, SaharaReporters exclusively reported how Yunusa-Ari in a leaked audio obtained by the newspaper, the REC told an election official, Hammajam Mohammed to do everything humanly possible to make Binani win.
He told the electoral official that he was instructed by a higher authority to make Binani win.
Yunusa-Ari directed Mohammed to rig the election in favour of the APC candidate, according to the conversation in the leaked audio.
The audio conversation goes thus:
Yunusa-Ari (REC): Is that our official from Gombi?
Mohammed: No sir, I’m from Fufore, sir.
Yunusa-Ari (REC): I’ve heard what happened, however, do whatever you can to help this woman (Binani), that’s why I gave you an extra results sheet. Please, just do anything to make her scale through.
But when contacted, Yunusa-Ari denied the allegation but attempted to negotiate to kill the report.
Around that time, the collation of results was temporarily suspended in Furore town where the incident occurred.
In another development, an officer of Nigeria’s secret police, Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday alleged that Yunusa-Ari was paid N2 billion to declare Binani as the winner of the governorship election in the state.
In a viral video, the DSS officer identified as Isa, explained that the REC collected N2 billion to declare Binani as the winner but denied any involvement in the fraud.
“I told you while we were in the car that the REC collected money running into billions of Naira to rig the election. I don’t know the exact amount but let’s put it at N2 billion,” Isa said.
Asked what he was doing around the REC’s place, he responded, “I swear to God I didn’t collude with him in the bribery; I was detailed with my team to arrest him instead.”
*Additional Reports by Sahara Reporters
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