Adamawa: APC guber candidate, Binani accuses INEC of frustrating petition at tribunal

<p>The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last gubernatorial election in Adamawa State, Senator Aishat Dahiru Binani, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of frustrating her petition against the declaration of Adamu Fintri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the poll.</p>, <p>Binani alleged that the electoral body, in an utter display of bias and disregard for the order of the court, is presently making desperate efforts to arrest and detain the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari as a ploy to prevent him from testifying for her at the ongoing Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.</p>, <p>Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Saturday on behalf of Binani, the APC Returning Officer at the Mach 18 governorship election and the re-run of April 15, Alhaji Mustapha Umar Madawaki, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to call INEC to order to allow the APC candidate reclaim her mandate obtained from the poll.</p>, <p>Madawaki, who alleged that the electoral body was in conspiracy with the state government and anti-Binani forces to thwart the diligent prosecution of the petition, claimed that INEC wanted the suspended REC apprehended and kept out of circulation to make him unavailable as witness for the governorship candidate.</p>, <p>Tracing the genesis of the election crisis and the resulting petition, the APC Returning Officer alleged that at the point of collation of results, INEC suddenly allowed its trained ad-hoc workers changed and unlawfully and mysteriously substituted by another group of untrained staff that were not meant for collation.</p>, <p>The result of the unlawful change of ad-hoc workers, he said, was the production of different election results from the ones submitted by the authentic workers.</p>, <p>He said, “To my mind, that is a major reason INEC is working overtime, trying to prevent the former Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari,