The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed Ahmadu Fintiri’s re-election as the governor of Adamawa State.
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aisha Dahiru (well known as Binani) had appealed against the judgement of the state governorship election petition tribunal which confirmed Fintiri’s re-election.
After the supplementary election, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party the winner of the polls with 430,861 votes, while Binani polled 398,788 votes.
Binani then approached the tribunal citing allegations of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
On Monday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Tunde Awotoye, held that the appellant’s brief was invalid and is likely to be struck out for being incompetent.
Awotoye further held that the appellants filed an incompetent record of appeal contrary to the practice directions of the court and tried to make the appeal court speculate.
The appeal court also held that the appellant’s allegations of corrupt practices were not backed by sufficient evidence and were rightly struck out by the tribunal.
“The evidence of the appellants at the tribunal was hearsay evidence which deserves to be ignored.
“I hold that this appeal lacks merit and is dismissed”, the court held.
The court also ordered Binani and APC to pay N1 million to the governor and his party,for filing a “vague” application.
