Appeal Court reserves judgement in Adamawa guber tussle

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has reserved judgment in the appeal brought before it by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 Adamawa state governorship election, Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani against the judgement of the Adamawa state governorship election petition tribunal which, affirmed the re-election of Ahmadu Fintiri as governor of the state.

A three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court reserved judgment in the appeal on Tuesday, to a date that would be communicated to parties after briefs filed in the matter were adopted.

While Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) representing the appellant wants the appellate court to set aside the judgement of the lower court which affirmed the election of Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the respondents, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Fintiri and the APC, through their various counsel prayed the court to dismiss the appeal for been incompetent and lacking in merit.

The Adamawa State Governorship Electoral Petitions Tribunal had, in October, dismissed the petition filed by Binani seeking Fintiri’s sack from office.

Binani had approached the Tribunal with a petition seeking to quash Fintiri’s declaration as the winner of the election by INEC.

Binani, in her petition, which had NEC, Fintiri and the PDP as the first, second, and third respondents, respectively, asked the Adamawa state governorship election petition tribunal to annul the governorship election over non-compliance with the electoral act.

The Tribunal, in its judgement, delivered by Justice T. O. Uloho, dismissed the petition brought by Sen. Binani and affirmed the victory of Governor Umaru Fintiri, the declared winner of the March 18th governorship election in Adamawa.

Uloho in her lead judgement delivered on behalf of the three-member panel said, “The petitioners woefully failed to establish their allegations of non- compliance with the electoral act and prove their case with cogent, credible and satisfactory evidence.”

The tribunal further held in its judgement that the court is an adjudicator and not an investigator, saying that all the petitioners’ witnesses came with documentary hearsay and failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.

Recall that INEC on April 18, declared Governor Fintiri the winner of the Adamawa governorship election after a supplementary election was held to conclude the governorship election after it was initially declared inconclusive.

INEC returning officer, Muhammed Mele, declared Fintiri the PDP winner, after polling, 430,861 votes to defeat his major counterpart, Aisha Binani of the APC, who polled 398,788.

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