NSUK’s management nullifies FASA elections

The Faculty Staff adviser, Stephen David, said the cancellation was due to the many petitions addressed to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and to that of Students’ Affairs. He however did not announce a new date for the conduct of fresh elections. The elections which were held on May 2 saw a tie […]

The Faculty Staff adviser, Stephen David, said the cancellation was due to the many petitions addressed to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and to that of Students’ Affairs. He however did not announce a new date for the conduct of fresh elections.
The elections which were held on May 2 saw a tie for the position of faculty president, with Yunus Abdullahi of 300-level Languages and Linguistics and James Emmanuel Onawo of 300-level Theatre and Cultural Studies department getting 241 votes each.
However, according to the Electoral Committee (ELCOM) chairman, Adanu Jerry, 400-level student of French Department, May 6 has been fixed for a re-run election between the two candidates and that it was agreed that the serving senators representing 10 departments of the faculty were to vote on that day.
Unfortunately, this did not go as planned due to misunderstanding between the senators, with one faction proposing that the newly elected senators should also vote and the other opposing the view.
It was then resolved that members of the electoral committee should vote, which was welcomed by the two faculty presidency contestants.
Speaking in an interview, the Public Relations Officer of ELCOM, Dalhatu Isa Waziri, said before the re-run election between Yunus and Onawo, the electoral committee issued letters of undertaking to both candidates which they signed, assuring that they would accept the outcome of the election in good faith.
However, after Onawo was declared winner, Yunus wrote a petition to the dean of the faculty and the Dean of Student Affairs, expressing his dissatisfaction with the election.
Prior to the nullification, other candidates were declared winners of various positions of the Faculty of Arts Students’ Association (FASA) and were issued certificates of return by the faculty’s electoral committee (ELCOM).
Meanwhile, the newly elected FASA executive members have also written a letter to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and other concerned members of the faculty and university management, seeking for reconsideration and redress of the situation.
Auwal is a 300-level Mass Communication student at Nasarawa State University, Keffi