According to Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), two of the commission’s National Commissioners who were deployed in Adamawa State for the supplementary elections were harassed.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Okoye made this known while providing an update on the controversy surrounding the supplementary elections that took place on Saturday.
“The commission is deeply disturbed by the harassment of our two National Commissioners deployed to the State to ensure a peaceful and credible supplementary election,” Okoye said.
“The two national commissioners, the Returning Officer and other staff of the commission must be allowed to perform their duties without let or hinderance.”
Okoye emphasized that the commission would not tolerate any form of lawlessness or brigandage targeted at its officials or the electoral process.
Prior to INEC’s suspension of the coalition of the governorship election in Adamawa, incumbent Governor Umaru Fintiri of the PDP had been leading Senator Binani of the APC by more than 1,000 votes in the results collated from 10 local government areas.
However, the returning officer had adjourned the exercise until 11am, but the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ari Hudu, declared Binani the winner without the results from 10 LGAs.
INEC subsequently voided the declaration and summoned the REC to Abuja for further investigation.
