The Appeal Court in Abuja has affirmed Ahmadu Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor of Adamawa State.

In the judgement passed by Justice Tunde Awotoye on Monday, 18 December 2023, the court threw out the appeal of Aishatu Binani Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for lacking merit.

Also, the court awarded the cost of N500,000 in favour of Fintiri and the PDP against Binani.

The court questioned the premature announcement of the election outcome by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Hudu Ari.

The court said that the action of Ari announcing Binani as the winner was illegal and an action outside of that prescribed by law as only the Returning Officer has such power.

Monday’s judgment affirmed the decision of the Tribunal on October 28 which dismissed the petition of Binani.

It posited that the petition failed to prove her allegations of over-voting by not tendering documents to prove her case faulting the outcome of the election.

One month after the March 18 governorship elections, Fintiri was declared winner after polling 9,337 votes and Binani came second after garnering 6,513 votes.

A day before Fintiri’s declaration, while collation was underway, Ari, prematurely declared Binani as the winner.

Reacting to the declaration of Binani as the winner, INEC said the pronouncement is of no effect.

INEC went on to suspend the collation of results of the supplementary election in Adamawa and invited the REC, Returning Officer and all officials involved to report back to the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja.
[ad unit=2]