A’Court upholds Fintiri’s election as Adamawa gov, throws out Binani’s petition

The Abuja Division of the Appeal Court on Monday, affirmed the re-election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State.

The Appelate court by so doing, dismissed the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate in the March 18 gubernatorial election, Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani who had sought to invalidate the election results.

In a unanimous decision by by a three-member panel of justices, the appellate court also awarded N1 million in costs against Binani on various grounds of abnormalities.

In the ruling read by Justice Tunde Oyebanji Awotoye, the appellate court held that Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was lawfully declared the winner of the poll by the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

The court also held that the appeal which could be described as vague, gave no reason to set aside the earlier judgment of the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the declaration of Fintiri as the winner of the gubernatorial poll.

Justice Awotoye said the three witnesses called to establish malpractices in 27 LGAs who were Campaign Coordinators were mere hearsay witnesses having not been party agents.

The court also noted that it is against the law to attach probate values to the testimony of the Campaign Coordinators since such is worthless in the face of the law.

At the end of the supplementary elections in the state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had announced that Fintiri polled 430,861 votes to defeat Binani who got a total of 398,788 votes.

But the APC candidate who was dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, approached the tribunal, alleging that the election was fraught with corrupt practices and non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.

The tribunal, during its seating, aligned with the INEC result and upheld Fintiri’s victory which forced Binani to file a petition at the Appeal Court.

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