TheCable

The Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON) has asked the federal government to prosecute thugs who assaulted an ex-vice chancellor in Adamawa.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed on April 17 that one of its national commissioners was stripped naked and dragged around while on election duty during the governorship supplementary polls in Adamawa state.

The commission spoke after a video surfaced showing the said  INEC national commissioner stripped to his underwear.

Festus Okoye, chairman of INEC’s information and voter education committee, later identified the assaulted official as Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, a former vice chancellor of Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokokoto (UDUS).

Zuru, who is also an ex-VC at Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, was made an INEC commissioner in 2021.

Okoye had said that the national commissioner was treated like a “common criminal” for doing his job.

In a statement on Wednesday, the governing council of ICCON, which Zuru headed, asked state authorities to prosecute the elements involved in the harassment.

ICCON said the professor was assaulted for refusing to take part in the illegal declaration of a winner at the polls.

“This has inflicted pain not just on the elder statesman and his family but also on his colleagues in academia,” the statement reads.

“Rather than earn national awards for his contributions to nation-building, he was subjected to such a barbaric act.”

A supplementary election was conducted in Adamawa on April 15 following the declaration of the March 18 governorship poll in the state as inconclusive over alleged irregularities.

The collation of election results was suspended until April 16 after results from 10 LGAs had already been revealed.

But Hudu Yunusa-Ari, Adamawa’s resident electoral commissioner, quickly declared Aisha Binani Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner when results from the remaining LGAs had yet to be collated.

TheCable reported how Hudu Yunusa-Ari was suspended as INEC demands his prosecution.

Speaking further on Zuru’s plight, ICCON said INEC should pursue the arrest of his assaulters with the same zest the commission has been pursuing the prosecution of  Yunusa-Ari.

“We are of the opinion that the same way INEC is strongly calling for the prosecution of the suspended REC, the zeal should be deployed in bringing the perpetrators to book so as to bring succor to Prof Zuru and his family,” the institute said.

“We as the regulatory body for chemistry practice in Nigeria join well-meaning Nigerians to call on the government and the inspector general of police to without further delay, arrest, prosecute and bring all the perpetrators to book.”