The supreme court has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking to void the election of Ahmadu Fintiri as governor of Adamawa state.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by John Okoro, adjourned the case for judgment after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument.
The appellants are praying the supreme court to set aside the concurrent verdicts of the court of appeal and the Adamawa state governorship election petitions tribunal, which upheld Fintiri’s re-election.
BACKGROUND
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On March 20, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the Adamawa governorship election inconclusive.
Mele Lamido, the returning officer, had announced that Fintiri scored 421,524 votes while Binani polled 390, 275.
He said the margin between the two top candidates was less than the total number of potential voters — 37,016 — in 69 polling units where elections were cancelled.
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After the election was declared inconclusive, INEC fixed April 15 for the conduct of the supplementary election.
After the supplementary poll, controversy ensued during collation after Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the resident electoral commissioner (REC), declared Binani as the winner of the election.
Yunusa-Ari announced Binani winner in the absence of the returning officer.
However, the electoral commission declared the announcement null and void and summoned the REC to its headquarters in Abuja, while collation of results continued.
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The final results showed that Binani scored 398,788 votes, while Fintiri secured 430,861 votes to win the poll.
After the election, Yunusa-Ari was suspended, arrested and handed over to police for prosecution.
THE APPEAL COURT’S VERDICT
Binani had approached the governorship tribunal with a petition seeking to nullify Fintiri’s election.
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She had alleged that the poll was marred by vote buying, thuggery, and over-voting.
However, a three-member panel on October 28, dismissed the petition filed by Binani and her party.
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Not satisfied, they appealed the tribunal’s judgment.
In the lead judgment delivered by Tunde Awotoye, the appeal court held that Binani and APC failed to prove all their allegations.
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The unanimous judgment dismissed the appeal in its entirety and awarded a cost of N1m to be paid to Fintiri and PDP by Binani and APC.
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