Different terms are coming to light as Nigerians witness the ‘amazing’ supplementary governorship election in Adamawa State, with the latest describing the poor outing of the Independent National Electoral Commission as a ‘Civilian Coup’.
Who would have thought that an election that held so much promise to the people of Adamawa is ending in such an unfathomable way.
It is happening right in the State of a former vice president of Nigeria and it is quaking every corner of the nation whose recent election is sitting on the scale at a Tribunal.
Now, a Resident Electoral Commission (REC), the one in charge in Adamawa, Hudu Yunusa, has made a mess with the nation’s constitution that governs elections.
He declared Binani, the candidate of the ruling party, winner of the governorship election in the state.
That responsibility is in the purview of the Returning Officer of the electoral body.
The Confusion
Yunusa announced this while collation of the Saturday’s supplementary poll had not been concluded.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), however, overruled Yunusa’s declaration.
The commission also suspended the collation of results and summoned the REC to Abuja.
‘Civilian Coup’
Different comments have trailed the aborted declaration.
Now, a former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, has another nomenclature for the unconstitutional declaration of winner.
Sani in a statement released on Sunday said the REC’s announcement was a move to truncate democracy.
The former lawmaker also described the action of the REC as a ‘civilian coup’.
“It was obvious that the REC was out to truncate democracy in the state and by extension Nigeria if his action was allowed unchecked.
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“The declaration by Adamawa REC is an equivalent of a civilian coup which stands condemnable.
Brazen Act
Our democracy can’t survive if we condone such brazen act of criminality and brigandage.
“Our political culture and attitude to election need chemotherapy.
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“The dangerous trend in our electoral system has gone beyond the culture of violence, vote buying and falsification of results to the most obnoxiously and brazenly crude phase of taking over the collation centre, seizing the mic and illegally declaring the results of an election,” he wrote.
There has been several calls by different individuals and groups to arrest and prosecute the ‘enthusiastic’ INEC official who usurped power.
Nigerians are waiting to see how hard the arm of the law will fall.
