S’court dismisses Binani’s appeal, affirms Fintiri as Adamawa governor

The supreme court has affirmed Ahmadu Fintiri as the duly elected governor of Adamawa state.

A five-member panel of the apex court, led by John Okoro, on Wednesday, dismissed the petition filed by Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.

The apex court ruled that the appeal filed by Binani lacked merit.

The court said the action of the resident electoral commissioner (REC) during the election amounted to irresponsibility and criminality.

The apex court held that the REC showed glaring incompetence by announcing the results because only the returning officer has the right to announce election results.

BACKGROUND

On March 20, 2023, 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.

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 REC, declared Binani winner of the poll.

Yunusa-Ari announced Binani as the 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.

The final results showed that Binani scored 398,788 votes, while Fintiri secured 430,861 votes to win the election.

After the election, Yunusa-Ari was suspended, arrested and handed over to police for prosecution.