APPEAL COURT DISMISSES THE PETITION BY THE APC AND IT’S GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE OF ADAMAWA STATE 18-12-23
By Sadiq Aminu The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the petition by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its governorship candidate, Senator Aisha Binani seeking to invalidate the election of Ahmadu Fintiri as the duly elected governor of Adamawa State.
The Appellate Court held that Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was lawfully declared winner of the poll by the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
A judgment written by Justice Tunde Awotoye dismissed the case of Binani and the APC on various grounds of abnormalities.
Among the grounds, the Appeal Court held that Binani and APC failed to call Polling Agents who participated in the conduct of the election as witnesses but unfortunately called Campaign Coordinators who were not at the election venue.
Justice Awotoye held that the three witnesses called to establish malpractices in 27 Local Government Areas who were Campaign Coordinators, were mere hearsay witnesses having not been party agents.
Besides, Justice Awotoye held that the brief of argument filed by Binani and APC was in contravention of the law, hence, incompetent and deserved to be ignored.
The Court declared as illegal act, the declaration of Binani and APC as winners of the election adding that the only authority to make declaration is the Returning Officer.
The unanimous judgment dismissed the appeal in its entirety and awarded a cost of N1 Million to be paid to Fintiri and PDP by Binani and APC.
The Adamawa State Governorship Electoral Petitions Tribunal had, in October, dismissed the petition filed by Binani seeking Fintiri’s sack from office.