The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal filed by Aishatu Ahmed, widely known as Binani, challenging the election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State.
Delivering the lead judgement of the five-member panel of the court, the presiding justice, John Okoro, held that the appeal filed by Ms Dahiru lacked merit.
Mr Okoro also held that a resident electoral commissioner, who had declared Ms Dahiru the winner while collation of results was still ongoing, lacks powers to announce election results.
Ms Dahiru had asked the Supreme Court to uphold the declaration made by embattled Hudu Yunusa, an INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), for being an official of the electoral umpire in line with Section 149 of the Electoral Act.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had affirmed the election of Mr Fintiri .
A three-member panel of the court had upheld the 28 October 2023 decision of the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, declaring Mr Fintiri the winner of the 18 March 2023 poll.
Ms Dahiru, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate at the poll, had urged the court to sack Mr Fintiri who was the flagbearer of the PDP on account of INEC’s non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
In the unanimous judgement, the three-member appellate court panel led by Tunde Awotoye, said Ms Onoh failed to prove allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the March governorship election in Adamawa State.
It held that the appellant’s claim of electoral fraud in 14,104 polling stations was not substantiated.
“There is no way three witnesses can prove allegations of noncompliance in 14,104 polling units. Besides, the witnesses were not at the polling units but were campaign coordinators for the appellants”.
The justice equally noted that the record of proceedings transmitted from the tribunal and the briefs to the court were incomplete.
“On the whole, this appeal lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed. The decision of the lower Tribunal is hereby confirmed,” the court awarded N1 million against the petitioners in favour of Fintiri and the PDP.
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