TheCable

The court of appeal in Abuja has dismissed a petition by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru.

The petition sought to nullify the election of Ahmadu Fintiri as governor of Adamawa state.

The court in its judgment on Monday, held that the Adamawa governorship election petition tribunal was right in declaring Fintiri winner of the poll.

BACKGROUND

On March 20, the y (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 during collation 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 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, while collation of results continued.

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.

TRIBUNAL

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

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.

Not satisfied, they appealed the tribunal’s judgment.

APPEAL COURT 

In the lead judgment delivered by Tunde Awotoye, the appeal court held that Binani and APC failed to call polling agents who participated in the conduct of the election, as witnesses.

Awotoye said the three witnesses called to establish malpractices in 27 LGAs, who were campaign coordinators, gave mere hearsay evidence having not been party agents.

The court held that it is against the law to attach probate values to the testimony of the campaign coordinators.

The appellate court further held that the brief of argument filed by Binani and APC was incompetent and deserved to be ignored.

Awotoye held that the records of appeal transmitted to the court by Binani and APC were insufficient.

The court faulted the resident electoral commissioner for going ahead to declare Binani as the winner, adding that the only authority capable of making a declaration is the Returning Officer.

The court also said it was wrong for Binani to make a case for the REC who opted to take laws into his own hands.

“In the eyes of the law, the Resident Electoral Commissioner is on his own. He should be allowed to take responsibility for his illegal and unlawful act,” the court held.

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.