Appeal Court Affirms Gov. Fintiri’s Re-election; Fines Binani N1 million

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Monday affirmed the re-election of Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party as Adamawa State governor. 

The court subsequently dismissed the appeal filed by Senator Aisha Binani of the All Progressives Congress to challenge the judgment of the state governorship election petition tribunal, which affirmed Mr Fintiri’s re-election.

Giving its judgement on Monday, the three-man appellate panel, led by Justice Tunde Awotoye, declared the appellant’s brief invalid and struck it out as incompetent.

The head of the panel also ruled that the appellants filed an incompetent record of appeal different from the practice directions of the court and tried to make the panel speculate. The court, therefore, struck out the suit, holding that the appellant’s allegations of corrupt practices were insufficiently proven and without evidence.

“The evidence of the appellants at the tribunal was hearsay evidence which deserves to be ignored,” the judge said. “I hold that this appeal lacks merit and is dismissed.” 

The court therefore ordered Mrs Binani and APC to pay N1 million to the governor and his party for filing a “vague” application.

Recall that in the supplementary election, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Mr Fintiri as the winner of the polls after scoring 430,861 votes against Mrs Binani’s 398,788 votes.

Mrs Binani cited allegations of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election and decided to approach the tribunal.