Politics

Security official alleges REC got N2bn to rig Adamawa gov poll, DSS probes

An officer of the Department of State Services (DSS) has alleged Hudu Yunusa, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Adamawa State, was paid N2 billion to declare Aishatu Dahiru Binani as the winner of the state’s governorship election.

This is coming as the DSS says it has commenced investigation into the assault on its official by hoodlums after the REC had declared the results of the election on Sunday.

In a viral video, the security official after the attack said that the REC collected N2 billion to declare the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Aisha Binani as the winner.

The DSS official denied being an accomplice in the fraud, adding that he only led a team to arrest the electoral commissioner.

Speaking in Hausa, he said, “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.”

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Asked what he was doing around the REC’s place, he said, “I swear to God I didn’t collude with him in the bribery; I was detailed with my team to arrest him instead.”

The REC had announced the APC candidate, Binani, as the winner of the governorship poll before the completion of the result collation.

But INEC, in a statement on its official Twitter handle shortly after the announcement of Binani as the winner of the election, described the action of the REC as the “usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer”.

“It is null, void and of no effect,” the statement issued by Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner, Information & Voter Education, said.

Meanwhile, spokesperson for the DSS, Dr Peter Afunanya, in a statement on Sunday, said, “The attention of the Department of State Services has been drawn to a trending video on social media in which someone suspected to be its staff was allegedly manhandled by some political miscreants in Adamawa State.

“This followed developments arising from the supplementary governorship election in the state. The service wishes to inform the public that it has commenced a full investigation into the circumstances that led to the incident.”