The suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa Ari, has been arrested by the police following a petition by the Independent National Electoral Commission on his conduct during the Adamawa state governorship election.
Yunusa-Ari earlier said in a BBC Hausa interview that he would surrender himself to the police two weeks after he reportedly went into hiding.
“I will surely turn myself in to the police. Before, there was no summon from the police but now there is one. I will soon come out from hiding,” Yunusa-Ari had told BBC Hausa.
Yunusa-Ari had denied the allegation that he received a bribe of N2 billion to announce the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Aishatu Dahiru Binani, as the winner of the governorship election in Adamawa State.
Yunusa-Ari, who announced Binani winner of the election while collation was yet to be completed has been widely accused of receiving a bribe from the APC governorship candidate.
The Independent National Electoral Commission however nullified Yunusa-Ari’s announcement and declared the incumbent Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.
In his interview with the BBC Hausa Service monitored by Vanguard on Tuesday, Yunusa-Ari said he had no regrets whatsoever about the action he took by making the announcement in the middle of the election.
Yunusa-Ari described the allegation of taking a bribe of N2 billion as social media hype, insisting that announcing the result was his responsibility and that it was backed by law.
The embattled REC said that he was ready to present himself to the police this week, and argued that neither the Department of State Services (DSS) nor the Nigerian police had come searching for him as was widely reported.
He said, “I never said the governor bribed anyone, but I knew there were allegations.
“I swear, I had nothing to do with either Binani or Fintiri. All these stories about the N2 billion bribe were social media hype.
“I have no regrets whatsoever, when you do something that was allowed to be done in a democracy, there are no regrets,” he had said.
