INEC declares Fintiri winner of suspense-filled Adamawa Governorship election
Written by Joey Shekwonuzhibo on April 19, 2023
Thirty days after the March 18 governorship elections, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri has emerged as the winner of the suspense-filled supplementary election in Adamawa State.
The Returning Officer for the Adamawa State governorship election, Professor Mohammed Mele, yesterday declared Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, the winner of the state governorship poll.
Fintiri secured a second term in office having scored 430,861 votes to beat the rival All Progressives Congress candidate, Aishatu Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, who garnered 398,788 votes.
Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission says it had asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, to draw the attention of “the appointing authority’’ to the behaviour of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari.
Fintiri’s victory took place fourty-eight hours after Binani was controversially declared the governor-elect by Yunusa-Ari.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has expressed his support for the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of what he describes as the criminality behind the drama that played out at the governorship rerun.
Fintiri made the call moments after his victory was made official.
He says INEC itself, as an umpire, has learnt a lot of lessons and it has corrected its wrongs so that the institution can protected.
He adds that the police also became caught up in the whole saga which was unfortunate.
For her part, the APC candidate in Adamawa State, Senator Aishatu Dahiru, has denied allegations that she paid some staff of the INEC, including Hudu Yunusa Ari, a Resident Electoral Commissioner in the poll, to declare her winner of the election.
You’d remember that Ari had on Sunday usurped the INEC Returning Officer in the state and announced Binani the winner of the election.
Following the declaration, INEC had suspended collation of result and banned the REC from office.
However, hours after Ari’s declaration a purported video of his had surfaced online showing the INEC REC confessing to receiving a N2bn bribe to announce Binani as the winner.
But in a statement, Binani had denied giving anyone a N2bn bribe to subvert the democratic process.
