Tribunal affirms Fintiri’s re-election as Adamawa governor, dismisses Binani’s petition

The Adamawa governorship election petition tribunal has affirmed the re-election of Ahmadu Fintiri as governor of the state.

The three-member panel on Saturday dismissed the petition filed by Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 election.

Binani had approached the court with a petition seeking to nullify the election of Fintiri.

She had alleged that the poll was marred by alleged vote buying, thuggery, and over-voting.

THE CONTROVERSY ADAMAWA ELECTION

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.

After the election was declared inconclusive, INEC fixed April 15 for the conduct of the supplementary election.

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

Yunusa-Ari announced Binani as the election 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 and also continued the collation of the suspended results.

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

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