- Atiku Reacts to Judgement
By Ken Afor
The appeal filed by Senator Aisha Dahiru, (popularly called Binani) a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the election victory of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri in the March 18 governorship poll in Adamawa State has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Senator Dahiru’s appeal was dismissed on Wednesday by a five-member panel headed by Justice Inyang Okoro for lacking merit.
The appeal filed by Senator Dahiru, a former federal lawmaker, and her party (APC) requests the court to nullify the declaration of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Reactions have been fast in coming. Former vice president and presidential candidate of the PDP in the last presidential elections, Atiku Abubakar reacted with excitement. On his Twitter handle, he offered praises for the judgment.
It would be recalled that following the March 18 poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive, despite figures mentioned at the collation center which showed that Fintiri had the highest votes. The commission explained that the cancelled votes exceeded the margin of victory between Fintiri and Dahiru.
However, a new date was set for a re-run election in areas where the exercise could not take place in the state.
Following the collation of results, Fintiri was declared the winner of the re-run with 9,337 votes, defeating Dahiru who came second with 6,513 votes. In the overall results for both the main election and the re-run, Governor Fintiri secured a total of 430,861 votes, while the APC candidate scored 398,788 votes.
Dissatisfied with the result, Senator Dahiru headed to the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.
However, her petition was dismissed as the tribunal affirmed Fintiri as governor.
She furthered her quest for justice to the Court of Appeal in Abuja through her team of counsel, headed by Chief Akinolu Olujimi, SAN. They claimed that the APC candidate secured the majority of votes cast, leading to her being declared the winner by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who was not mandated by the commission to do so.
Deciding on the matter, the appellate court, in its ruling, held that the appeal by Senator Dahiru lacked precision and was weightless to compel the commission to nullify the election.
At the apex court, her counsel asked the court to disregard the previous judgments of the lower courts, which dismissed their case and upheld Fintiri’s re-election.
On the legality of the REC’s pronouncement, she asked the court to ascertain the authentic Returning Officer in a gubernatorial election.
Weighing in on the matter, the apex court condemned the scandalous action of the suspended REC in the state, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, who declared Senator Dahiru as the winner of the poll.
According to the court, the Electoral Act of 2022 only mandates a Returning Officer to announce the results of an election.
