The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the petition by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani seeking to invalidate the election of Umar Ahmadu Fintiri as the duly elected governor of Adamawa State.
The Appellate Court held that Governor Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was lawfully declared the winner of the poll by the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
A judgment written by Justice Tunde Oyebanji Awotoye threw out the case of Binani and 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 said the three witnesses called to establish malpractices in 27 Local Government Areas who were Campaign Coordinators are mere hearsay witnesses having not been party agents.
The Court held that it is against the law to attach probate values to the testimony of the Campaign Coordinators since such is worthless in the face of the law.
Justice Awotoye added that the brief of argument filed by Binani and APC was in contravention of the law, hence, incompetent and deserved to be ignored.
Also, Justice Awotoye held that the records of appeal transmitted to the Court of Appeal by Binani and APC were not complete and insufficient for the Court to make any finding.
The Court declared as an illegal act the declaration of Binani and APC as winners of the election adding that the only authority to make a declaration is the Returning Officer.
The unanimous judgment dismissed the appeal in its entirety and awarded a cost of N1m 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.
