Delivering the judgment, the presiding judge, Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye, had awarded N500,000 in favour of each of the three respondents.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an appeal case filed by the Social Democratic Party and its candidate in the Adamawa State governorship election, Umar Ardo seeking the nullification of Adamawa Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri’s re-election during the 2023 general polls lacked merit and was dismissed.
This was made in a ruling given by a five-member panel led by John Okoro after the appellants had tried all their efforts to convince the apex court to see the reasons to sack Fintiri.
But the court eventually ruled in favour of Fintiri and upheld his re-election.
Recall that SaharaReporters had reported how the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja affirmed the election of Fintiri in December 2023.
The panel of three judges dismissed the appeal filed by Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani and affirmed the decision of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
Delivering the judgment, the presiding judge, Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye, had awarded N500,000 in favour of each of the three respondents.
Binani, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), earlier challenged the election of Governor Fintiri (Peoples Democratic Party), at the election petitions tribunal, alleging several irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
She hinged her case on non-accreditation, improper accreditation and overvoting, violence, and snatching of election materials, among other irregularities.
She argued that Fintiri’s election could not stand because there were multiple declarations of winner and returns made, as according to her, she was earlier declared the winner by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa-Ari.
As such, she maintained that the election had two different declarations of a winner.
During the 2023 general elections, Fintiri received 9,337 votes in the supplementary election. He defeated Aisha Dahiru, better known as Binani, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who finished second in the contest with 6,513 votes.
Fintiri and Dahiru are the main candidates for governor.
The supplementary election was held in 69 polling units among the state’s 20 local administrations, with fewer than 40,000 eligible voters.
The final results were announced by the INEC Returning Officer in the state, Mohammed Mele.
Mele, a professor, said the PDP governorship candidate has met the constitutional requirement and thereby returned as governor of the state.
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