The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the last election in Adamawa State, Dr Umar Ardo has lost his bid to annul the election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri
The state Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Monday dismissed the petition filed by Umar Ardo against the governor.
Umar Ardo, his Deputy, Amos Yusuf and the SDP had filed a petition challenging the governorship election conducted by INEC in Adamawa State on March 18, 2023.
In his petition instituted on May 8, 2023, Ardo had joined INEC, Fintiri and 16 others as respondents, alleging that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Nigerian Electoral Act and that the exercise was marred by bribery, threats and violence.
He sought the nullification of the entire exercise based on those allegations.
On their part, the respondents told the tribunal that the petition was not supported with evidence and was not filed in compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act.
Delivering the judgement, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice T.O. Uloho declared that the petition was incompetent, defective, incongruous and not properly instituted.
The petitioners, she ruled, were not certain about what they wanted.
She dismissed the petition and awarded N200,000 against the petitioner and in favour of INEC, Governor Fintiri, Deputy Governor Kaletapwa Farauta, and PDP.
