The Adamawa Civilian Coup And The Campaign Of Calumny

Our attention has been drawn to a press conference held in Abuja on Saturday by the Binani led faction of the APC in Adamawa, in which they accused the INEC of supporting His Excellency, The Rt. Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri to win the 2023 election in Adamawa; in the same statement, they accused what they described as some Abuja APC powerful politicians of sabotaging their effort.

This move too is fruitless and dead on arrival.

It is always the antics of unsuccessful politicians who are desperate for power.

It is laughable that Mustapha Madawaki could be allowed to be used to spread dangerous allegations against Governor Fintiri and blame the so-called “Abuja” politicians for the electoral defeat of the APC 2023 Governorship candidate in Adamawa State.

The Purveyors of such falsehoods and premeditated campaigns of calumny, whose objective is to harm a reputation developed through time and continuous conduct, "must be held accountable," that under normal circumstances it wouldn't have been necessary to reply to coupists and their sponsors especially that the matter is before an Elections Petition Tribunal.

After her role in the failed civilian coup engineered by the now-suspended Adamawa REC, Hudu Yunusa Ari, Binani is expected to apologise to the people of Adamawa and Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. Everyone knew that the APC governorship contest was tainted by pay-for-votes and the general dollarization of the entire process.

Overvoting caused the entire primary election to be declared invalid by the Federal High Court in Yola. They anticipated that the cash-in-exchange-for-votes tactics that had won the APC primary would also be successful in the main election.

In spite of her knowledge, Binani nonetheless read the winning speech for an unlawful candidate, and now she "has no candidate to redeem." Binani has been serving as the public face of Hudu Yunusa (the suspended REC) from the start. When initially seen, Binani was defending the confession of a person who abused his office with the sole aim of sabotage the 2023 governorship polls in Adamawa.

To prevent INEC from prosecuting Hudu, she had an Abuja court issue a restraining order.

Senator Binani was repeatedly misled by political mercenaries and conflict entrepreneurs like who have no electoral value in Adamawa State, into thinking she was a superwoman and that every opposing voice in the party must be crushed, when in fact, the situation could have been resolved through more civilised means, such as dialogue and reconciliation with stakeholders and the people of Adamawa.

It is a fact that we have never had an election in the history of Nigeria where an election is yet to be concluded and a winner was illegally announced by a fellow that has no such responsibility in INEC. The question one may ask is what is Binani's headache with INEC prosecuting one of their own for illegally declaring a winner in Adamawa?"Does she presently hold employment with INEC? Binani should stop repeatedly seeking court orders if she believes Hudu has done the right thing.

We have repeatedly asked Binani to provide a single polling unit where there was violence during the 2023 election, and the 2023 election was the most peaceful election in Adamawa State. But as of right now, she hasn't. Hudu allegedly manipulated the vote totals for this demographic in order to topple Governor Fintiri. Their malicious plans, however, were futile, as evidenced by the ongoing outcomes.

Only God has forgiven them for their defeat, and no amount of blackmail or smear campaign against the Governor and INEC will save them from the reach of the law.

Binani and her supporters should devote equal time and energy to refuting the fraudulent proclamation made by Hudu and his accomplices and defending the legal grounds for a civil coup in Adamawa.

Humwashi Wonosikou writes from Yola, the Adamawa State capital