Press statement :
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press,
I am compelled, by news reports of an ongoing attempt by the Nigerian Bar Association President, Barrister Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau (SAN), to refer Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, the suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, for investigation and possible sanctions, to ask:
why the uncommon rush to condemn Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari while a competent judicial process to determine the legality, or otherwise, of his actions on the 15th of April, 2023, is ongoing? Who stands to benefit from an NBA disciplinary pronouncement and action against Barrister Hudu on the matter preceding the determination of the court on the matter? Will that not be turning the well-established legal tradition that a man is assumed innocent until proven guilty on its head? Will the NBA not be ditching its own principle of not making comments or taking steps on matters pending before courts of law in the overall interest of justice?
It will be recalled that the Resident Electoral Commission of the Adamawa State Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, had, on the 15th of April, 2023, personally announced the results of the Supplementary Election in Adamawa State, and declared Senator Aishatu Ahmed Dahiru Binani as the winner of the Gubernatorial Elections.
This resulted in an outcry by some sections of Adamawa State and Nigeria, which resulted in the upturning of the results and the arrest of Barrister Hudu. He was then charged to court to determine the validity, or otherwise, of his actions. This charge, with charge number HC/ADSY/15c/2023, was brought before the Adamawa State High Court on the 5th of July.
As far as I can tell, that case before a court of competent jurisdiction is ongoing. It has not yet been determined. The Adamawa State Gubernatorial Election, including the role played by the Adamawa State Electoral Commissioner and the two Federal Electoral Commissioners and the Returning Officer, is also before the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal. This tribunal is also a competent judicial entity, and the case has not been determined yet.
So, why is the NBA President, in total disregard of established legal conventions, in a hurry to bring Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee? Why not wait for the outcome of these judicial processes before deciding whether or not to take any disciplinary action? Will that not be the fair and just thing to do?
My question is: why is INEC so bent on preventing its own Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, from testifying before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal? Is it that Barrister Hudu knows something or has documents that will implicate INEC in a conspiracy to subvert the will of the people in the 2023 Adamawa State Governorship Elections? Why all the rush to tarnish his image or incarcerate him or, otherwise, prevent him from testifying?
Barrister Hudu has, since then, consistently maintained that his action that day was necessitated by the official documents before him, and by the prevailing circumstances and the need to uphold the integrity of the commission, seeing that the Returning Officer and the two National Electoral Commissioners sent from the commission’s HQ were clearly bent on thwarting the processes. Why doesn’t INEC want to let him stand before the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and expatiate on those documents and circumstances that forced him to act the way he did on the 15th of April, 2023? What is INEC trying to hide from Nigerians?
These questions become pertinent in the light of this reported case of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Yakubu Maikyau, working to have Hudu Yunusa appear before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, before the conclusion of the work of the Election Petitions Tribunal or the conclusion of the charge before the High Court in Yola. This is more telling if one takes in to consideration the reported close personal friendship between the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, and the NBA President. They are said to have known each other and related as close friends for a long time.
Is the NBA President, Barrister Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau (SAN), not playing a part scripted by his friend, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu? Is this not an attempt to subliminally influence the decisions of the Adamawa State High Court hearing the case against Hudu Yunusa Ari and the Election Petitions Tribunal, hearing Senator Aishatu Ahmed Dahiru Binani’s case against the declared victory of Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in the 2023 governorship elections? Is this not a red herring to put Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari in double jeopardy and get his reputation tarnished by the disciplinary body, so as to give a dog a bad name and quickly hang it?
Conclusion:
These are pertinent questions that I want to put out there to Adamawa State citizens and Nigerians, because INEC has not, in any sense of the word, acted with integrity or impartiality in the 2023 Governorship Elections in Adamawa State. It bungled the entire governorship election process and is now left with an albatross around its neck. It could not even call its witnesses for fear of being called out during cross examination. It is out in the public domain that, as the First Respondent in the Petition before the Tribunal, it registered 25 witnesses but failed to call even one witness. What does that say about INEC and the case before it?
It is my considered opinion that INEC has far worse issues to worry about, especially given the bad way it handled the logistics of the 2023 General Elections despite the colossal sums of money allocated to it, that the efforts it is putting into attempts to silence Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari amounts to nothing more than a smokescreen to cover up the real issues.
Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari has, throughout his illustrious legal career and simple life, shown himself to be just, impeccable and incorruptible. People who know him and worked with him know that he is as straight as a ruler. He is not one to cheaply throwaway his career and reputation just for unclean personal gain. That is why I insist that there is something about the 2023 Adamawa State Gubernatorial Elections that made him take the stand he took on that fateful day of the 15th of April, 2023. I believe he has the right to be heard. I believe also that Nigerians have the right to hear from him. Who is in the best position to speak about an election than the Resident Electoral Commissioner? That is why I am calling on the NBA, and other government institutions, to stop this rush to put Barrister Hudu Yunusa away. Allow him to tell us what he knows.
I’m Alhaji Umar Mustapha Madawaki (Otumba Ekiti), your concerned fellow citizen.
Thank you all.