Adamawa Decides: Who is Afraid of Aisha Binani?

Adamawa Decides: Who is Afraid of Aisha Binani?

By Abdulsalam Mahmud

The 2023 gubernatorial elections were held on March 18, 2023. It took place in 28 States. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has since announced various winners of the guber polls.

But not for Adamawa State. The electoral body declared the exercise inconclusive. It failed to announce a clear winner.

Final results tallied by INEC showed that incumbent Governor of the State, Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, scored the highest votes, in the March 18 exercise.

He was closely trailed by Sen. Aisha Dahiru Binani. Binani is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Fintiri defeated Binani, with a margin of over 30,000 votes. The incumbent governor scored 421,524 votes while Mrs Dahiru won 390,275 votes.

But INEC said that the cancelled votes were more than the margin of victory between Fintiri and the runner-up, Binani.

Tomorrow, April 15, is the new date for re-run elections in areas where elections could not be held in the State, last month. There is tension across the North East State.

Who carries the day, eventually? Will Governor Fintiri surmount the Binani wave? Is Binani going to make history tomorrow? Will she become the first ever elected Nigerian female Governor?

INEC, by now, should have been done with the distribution of its sensitive election materials. Voters in the affected areas should not be disenfranchised, as a result of any potential inaction of INEC officials.

The police and other security agencies cannot afford to disappoint Nigerians. They should adequately police the entire process. They should deal with unscrupulous elements who wish to destabilize the voting and collation of results, afterwards.

Ordinarily, Fintiri should not be jittery of tomorrow’s poll. That is, if he believes his performance in office, in the last four years, is breathtaking.

But why is his party, the PDP, somewhat developing goose bumps, about the likely outcome of the re-rerun? The PDP doesn’t seem confident going into tomorrow’s election?

It may just be afraid that the apple cart will be upseted. The Binani electoral momentum is still sending shivers down its spine. Hence, it is clutching at every available straw for ‘survival’ or ‘salvation’.

The party had accused some members of the ruling APC and INEC officials of plotting to manipulate the election. That was during the result collation stage.

Earlier this month, the PDP then demanded the removal of the Resident Electoral Officer, REC, in Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa, ahead of tomorrow’s supplementary election.

PDP spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, had accused the REC of complicity in alleged plots to manipulate the outcome of the governorship election in the state.

“From credible information available to our Party, INEC is stoking a breakdown of Law and Order in Adamawa State with the continued stay in office of Mallam Hudu Yunusa Ari as Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in spite of his alleged complicity in the plots to manipulate the outcome of the Governorship election in the State, even with PDP’s clear lead of 31,299 lawful votes in the election.

“It is provocative and unacceptable that INEC retained Mallam Yunusa Ari to conduct the April 15, 2023 governorship re-run election despite being reportedly caught on tape directing the Electoral Officer of Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State in Hausa Language to alter election results in favour of the defeated governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Aisha Binani.

“The continued stay in office of Mallam Yunusa Ari in the face of widespread outcry by the people of Adamawa State amounts to pushing the people to the wall and daring them to do their worst.

“The PDP dismisses the lame denial of the leaked audio tape by the exposed INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner. The basis for recusal by an umpire is the accusation of likelihood of bias.”

The party also alleged that the REC gave similar instructions to Electoral Officers in some other Local Government Areas of the state to manipulate the results of the election. The party therefore asked the REC to recuse himself from superintending and/or conducting the re-run governorship election.

“In view of these grave allegations and evidence of the audio tape already in the public domain, Mallam Yunusa Ari should immediately recuse himself from superintending and/or conducting the re-run governorship election in Adamawa State on April 15, 2023.

“The PDP invites Nigerians to note that INEC relieved the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Sokoto State, Dr. Nura Ali over allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the just concluded elections in that State.

“There is therefore no justification for the continuing stay of Mallam Yunusa Ari as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State in the face of these grave allegations except for sinister reasons.

“Nigerians can recall that the Adamawa State INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner was also accused of being at the center of the failed attempt to move the collation of results of the Adamawa State Governorship election from Yola to Abuja to enable the INEC Returning Officer declare the defeated APC candidate as the winner; a move that was firmly resisted by the people of Adamawa State.

“The PDP cautions that the people of Adamawa State will never surrender their mandate to these reprehensible plots to manipulate the outcome of the re-run governorship election in the State. The continued stay of Mallam Yunusa Ari as INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State is heightening tension and is capable of disrupting the peace for which the State is known.

“Mallam Yunusa Ari has clearly become partisan; he has descended into the arena by allegedly taking sides with the APC, a political party in the contest to the extent of directing Electoral Officers to manipulate election results in favour of the APC candidate.

“The PDP therefore demands that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu immediately remove Mallam Yunusa Ari as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State.

“On our part, the PDP restates that it is firmly on ground in Adamawa State. Our Party and Candidate, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri are in clear lead and we are ready for the re-run election in the 69 Polling Units already announced by the INEC Returning Officer.

“The PDP once again calls on the people of Adamawa State, our teeming members and supporters to remain calm but very vigilant in resisting the APC and its candidate who are desperate to steal”.

Looking at the ‘desperation’ by the PDP and anxiety in the camp of Governor Fintiri ahead of the Adamawa guber re-run, it sure appears that Binani is on the cusp of history. She may, after tomorrow, become a history maker.

She is about to achieve the feat that late Senator Aisha Alhassan aka Mama Taraba and Dame Paulen Tallen, Minister of Women Affairs, unfortunately could not, despite coming so close to victory in the 2015 Taraba and 2011 Plateau governorship elections, respectively.

Binani has paid her dues as a responsive, consummate and brilliant federal lawmaker, who has championed the course of Adamawa people in the National Assembly, NASS, first as a former House of Representatives member and now a Distinguished Senator.

She is now seeking to become the Chief Executive Officer of the Land of Beauty. But not for the lot of herself or cronies. It is to help actualize the collective Adamawa dream.

As for the electorate in Adamawa, they are about to have a date with history. By the time the dust of the guber re-run in their beloved State settles, they will roll out their drums to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch.

Those who may not join in the anticipated merriment are not faceless, or shadowy. They are the ones, who already, utterly dread the illustrious personality of Sen. Aisha Dahiru Binani, the redoubtable AMAZON of the contemporary Adamawa political firmament.

Abdulsalam Mahmud
Wuye District, Abuja
[email protected]