Fintiri receives certificate of return from INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has presented a certificate of return to Ahmadu Fintiri, governor-elect of Adamawa state.

Fintiri and the deputy governor-elect, Kaletapwa Farauta, received their certificates of return on Wednesday at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

On Tuesday, the electoral umpire declared Fintiri as the winner of the Adamawa governorship election.

Fintiri, who contested the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 430,861 votes to defeat Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 398,788 votes.

Prior to the final declaration on Tuesday, INEC had earlier declared the March 18 governorship election in the state inconclusive and fixed the supplementary election for April 15.

On April 15, the supplementary election was conducted in Adamawa.

However, controversy ensued at the collation of the supplementary election results after Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the resident electoral commissioner (REC) in the state declared Binani the winner of the election.

Mele Lamido, the returning officer, was not present when Yunusa-Ari announced Binani as the winner of the election.

Lamido is empowered by law to declare the winner of the election.

The action of the REC sparked controversy as INEC suspended the collation exercise and asked Yunusa-Ari to stay away from the office.