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Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja 

Fresh facts have emerged as to the circumstances which led to the suspension of the Resident Electoral Commissioner REC in Sokoto State, Dr Nura Ali.

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC had on Monday suspended Dr Ali with immediate effect via a letter signed by INEC’s Secretary, Rose Oriarian-Anthony, and addressed to both the REC and the Administrative Secretary in the state.

In a separate letter, the Administrative Secretary of the commission in the state, Hauwa Aliyu Kangiwa, was asked to take over the affairs of INEC in the state.

However, the suspended REC was said to have been accused of high-handedness by the staff of the commission.

Consequently, the staff were said to have adopted a “Siddon look” attitude towards the REC, a development that allegedly made him rely solely on ad hoc staff to shoulder the burden of conducting last Saturday’s elections in the state.

“The REC could not effectively function during elections because the staff abandoned him. He was too high-handed. It wasn’t as if the staff were the ones to conduct the elections or make returns but there were administrative tasks that ad hoc personnel could not have been able to execute”, said a source.

Sokoto is the only state where no return was made for the Senatorial election in any of the three Senatorial districts.

Consequently, the commission is set to conduct a supplementary election for the Senatorial seats after the Governorship and States Assembly Elections.