The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has petitioned the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), seeking a sanction against Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC.
The NBA said in a statement on Saturday that it sent a petition against Mr Yunusa-Ari, a lawyer, “over his role in illegally declaring the results of the supplementary 2023 gubernatorial election in Adamawa State while votes were still being counted.”
While results of the last Adamawa State governorship election were stil being collated, Mr Yunusa-Ari caused a stir when he illegally declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Aisha Dahiru, the election winner on 16 April.
At the time of Mr Yunusa-Ari’s declaration of Ms Dahiru widely known as Aisha Binani as winner of the election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and incumbent governor of Adamawa, Ahmadu Fintiri, was in a clear lead.
But the electoral umpire eventually declared Mr Fintiri winner of the polls after results from the supplementary election were collated.
INEC has since suspended and filed criminal charges against Mr Yunusa-Ari.
NBA
However, the NBA said in its statement Saturday that its National Executive Committee (NEC) resolved to petition the LPDC “over the unbecoming conduct of some members of the legal profession” like Mr Yunusa-Ari.
The National Publicity Secretary of the NBA, Akorede Lawal, said the association’s NEC meeting presided by its President NBA, Yakubu Maikyau.
“Following the resolutions of the National Officers, the NBA has filed petitions at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) against Mr Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” statement stated.
Mr Maikyau, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was quoted to have restated his commitment to stamp out indiscipline from the legal profession.
PREMIUM TIMES reported other resolutions reached at the the NBA NEC meeting, including a vow to launch a probe into an alleged attempt to bribe a judge of the National Assembly and State House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Kano, Flora Azinge.
The association similarly resolved to probe the allegations of sexual assault against Cyril Ndifon, the suspended Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Cross River State.
Trial stalled
INEC had filed six charges against Mr Yunusa-Ari at the Adamawa State High Court in Yola, the state capital, after the police concluded their investigations into his illegal declaration of Binani as the winner of the state’s governorship election.
But the trial has been stalled as a result of a suit filed by Binani at the Federal High Court in Abuja, to bar INEC from trying the errant REC.
The court in July granted an interim order directing parties to the suit to stay action with respect to the matter pending further hearing.
On 24 July, the court heard the substantive case and adjourned until 24 October for judgement.
This means the trial of the suspended INEC REC will likely remain stalled until the judgement is delivered in the case.
Through her lawyer, Michael Aondoakaa, a SAN, the politician based her opposition to Mr Yunusa-Ari’s trial on the ground that the suspended REC was billed to testify in her case against the outcome of the election at the election petiton tribunal.
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But INEC lawyer, Adebisi Adeniyi, who stood in for the commission’s lead counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, a SAN, disagreed with Mr Aondoakaa’s submission at the hearing of the suit.
Mr Adeniyi contended that the charges that were filed against the suspended REC were a bailable one that would allow him to give his testimony before the tribunal.
The lawyer added that Binani had not placed anything before the court to show that Mr Yunusa-Ari was listed as a witness for her petition.
Besides, he argued that the applicant had not also shown to the court whether the suspended REC had either been invited, arrested or charged.
The lawyer said judges that would determine the election petition were not robots but were properly trained and experienced professionals and would be guided by law.
According to him, there is no way the prosecution of the suspended REC will affect the plaintiff’s petition.
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