The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lied in its claim that APC governorship candidate Aishatu Dahiru was not listed as a director in Binani Printing Press, a company awarded the contract of printing sensitive election materials, Peoples Gazette can confirm.

According to documents seen by The Gazette, Ms Dahiru alias Binani, who is running for governor in Adamawa on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is named as a director of Binani Printing Press with RC-816807 and established on May 11 2009.

On Thursday, INEC defended the deal with Binani Press, insisting the commission was certain the printing press could deliver following an inspection of the company’s facility and the completion of additional due diligence by the Corporate Affairs Commission.

“After inspecting the company’s facility and carrying out due diligence at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the Commission was satisfied that they are qualified printers with the requisite technical capacity, security consciousness and expertise in printing security documents,” INEC had claimed in a statement on Thursday.

It then issued a verdict, declaring, “Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed was not listed as one of the Directors of Binani Printing Press Limited.” 

INEC issued the statement after a Sahara Reporters’ story that uncovered how Nigeria’s electoral body awarded a N434 million election materials printing contract to a company owned by Ms Dahiru, incumbent senator of Adamawa Central.

The documents revealing the company’s records and expressly naming Ms Dahiru as a director have cast aspersions on INEC’s statement and further tainted the commission’s credibility to conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria, particularly under the leadership of its current chair, Mahmood Yakubu.

The electoral commission’s spokesman Festus Okoye did not immediately respond to The Gazette’s telephone calls to seek comments on the CAC findings.