The private jet used to secretly move Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the embattled Residential Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State out of Yola, the state capital after he illegally declared Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as governor-elect, is owned by the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has gathered.
The Adamawa governorship supplementary election was conducted on Saturday following the declaration of the March 18 poll as inconclusive over alleged irregularities.
While the results from the supplementary election were yet to be completely announced, Yunusa-Ari declared Binani as the winner.
INEC subsequently declared the announcement null and void and summoned the REC to its headquarters in Abuja.
Recently reported how Yunusa-Ari was flown to Abuja from Yola immediately after announcing Binani as the winner of the election.
He was flown out of Yola in the private jet with registration number – (NG) 5N-IKO at exactly 12.58 pm last Sunday, shortly after he made the announcement, and touched down in Abuja at exactly 1.38 pm, after flying for 40 minutes.
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Further investigations revealed that the Raytheon Hawker 800XP has ‘Baze Research and Data Services Limited’ as its registered owner.
Baze Research and Data Services Limited is owned by Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
The jet was manufactured in 2001 by Raytheon Aircraft Company.
In 2022, the aircraft which was registered in the United States as N927AR and operated by MC Avio LLC, Boca Raton FL, was sold to Baba-Ahmed.
The registration code 5N-IKO was subsequently assigned to the aircraft after it was acquired by the Labour Party vice-presidential candidate on September 20, 2022.
Speaking to an aviation source confirmed Datti Baba-Ahmed as the owner of the private jet.
He added that the aircraft was used by Labour Party chieftains including its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his wife, Margaret during electioneering.
We also gathered that the Raytheon Hawker 800XP was the private jet Obi claimed he hired to fly an elderly man whose flight from Asaba to Abuja was cancelled and rescheduled.
The Labour Party presidential candidate was recently seen in a viral video taking a 95-year-old man whose flight to Abuja was cancelled to a private jet.
“Unknown to many, Obi was travelling in the same private jet – 5N-IKO owned by Datti to the same Abuja; it wasn’t that the jet was arranged specifically for the man, he only joined Obi on the flight to Abuja.
“This same jet 5N-IKO was used to move the Adamawa REC, though it was chartered for the man. It’s owned by no other person but Datti Baba-Ahmed. The Labour Party chieftains are aware of this, Datti used that same jet throughout the campaign period, moving from one state to the other,” the source said.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
