The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the validly elected governor of Adamawa State. The court dismissed the appeal filed by Aishatu Binani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for lacking merit.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Ebiowei Tobi on Monday, the appellate court awarded N500,000 in favour of Fintiri and the PDP, while describing her appeal as lacking merit.
The court upheld the decision of the tribunal, which on October 28 dismissed Aishatu Binani’s petition and upheld the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission that Fintiri won the election.
According to Prof Muhammed Mele, who was the Returning Officer for the governorship election, Fintiri won the supplementary election with 9,337 votes to 6,513 votes. In total, PDP’s Fintiri won 430,861 votes, while APC’s Binani scored 398,788 votes.
Mele had said, “That Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”
The tribunal had dismissed Binani’s petition for failing to prove her allegations of over-voting, as she did not tender the necessary documents to support her case. The appellate court’s judgment on Monday upheld the tribunal’s ruling and affirmed Fintiri as the governor of the state.
The court also criticised the premature announcement of the election outcome by the then Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Hudu Yunusa-Ari and emphasised that his actions were illegal.
The court stressed that only the Returning Officer had the power to announce election results in accordance with the law.
The governorship election had generated controversy when Yunusa –Ari declared Binani of the APC as the winner of the election.
However, the Federal High Court in Abuja in November gave the nod for INEC to prosecute Yunusa-Ari, who is facing a six-count charge for attempting to usurp the role of the Returning Officer for the election.
