January 31, 2024
- By Reporter
The Supreme Court has on Wednesday affirmed that the election of Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri as Adamawa State Governor was valid and in accordance with the provisions of the law.
The court had reserved judgement on January 29, in an appeal filed by Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice John Okoro, adjourned the matter for judgement on Monday after listening to the arguments of the parties in the case.
The counsel to Binani, Akin Olujimi, had argued that the declaration by then-Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa-Ari, that she won the 2023 governorship election was lawful.
It could be recalled that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja affirmed the election of Fintiri in December 2023.
A panel of three judges dismissed the appeal filed by Binani and affirmed the decision of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The presiding judge, Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye, while delivering the judgment, awarded N500,000 in favour of each of the three respondents.
Binani had alleged several irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
She hinged her case on non-accreditation, improper accreditation, overvoting, violence, and snatching of election materials, among other irregularities.
She argued that Fintiri’s election could not stand because there were multiple declarations of winner and returns made, as according to her, she was earlier declared the winner by the REC, Yunusa-Ari.
As such, she maintained that the election had two different declarations of a winner.
Fintiri received 9,337 votes in the supplementary election held in the state, defeating Binani who came second in the contest with 6,513 votes.
The supplementary election was held in 69 polling units among the state’s 20 local administrations, with fewer than 40,000 eligible voters.
The final results were announced by the INEC Returning Officer in the state, Mohammed Mele.
Mele, a professor, said the PDP governorship candidate had met the constitutional requirement and thereby returned as governor of the state.
