The Supreme Court on Monday, reserved judgment in the appeal brought before it by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Aisha Dahiru (aka) Binani, challenging the election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
When the matter came up, parties adopted their written addresses and a five-member panel of justices of the apex court, led by Justice John Okoro, reserved judgment to a date that would be communicated to the parties.
Binani had argued through her counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), that the declaration of results by the Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC), Hudu Ari, was lawful.
She is challenging the victory of Fintiri in the election and praying the court to overrule the judgment of the Adamawa state election petition tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal that had dismissed her petition.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had, in December last year, dismissed the appeal filed by Aisha Dahiru and her party, challenging Fintiri’s election.
In a unanimous judgement of a three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court led by Justice Tunde Awotoye, the court upheld the judgment of the Adamawa state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed Fintiri’s election as governor of Adamawa State.
Justice Ebiowei Tobi, who read the judgment, held that the record of proceedings transmitted to the Court of Appeal and the briefs of the appellants were incomplete and the court would not consider them.
He said the appellants failed to show how the alleged noncompliance substantially affected the result of the election and held that, the responsibility of declaring election results is solely that of a returning officer and not any other person.
The REC, he said, has no power to declare election results, saying, “The action of the REC was absolutely out of his power. The lower tribunal was right not to give relevance to the declaration, the REC is on his own.”
While holding that the appellants, Aisha Binani and her party failed to prove the allegations contained in their joint petition as required by law, Justice Tobi said, “This appeal is defective. The three witnesses called by the appellants cannot prove allegation of noncompliance to the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election in 14,104 polling units.
“On the whole, this appeal lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed. The decision of the lower Tribunal is hereby affirmed”, the court held and awarded a cost of N1 million against the petitioners to be paid to Fintiri and the PDP.”
It would be recalled that the APC candidate lost at the tribunal in a judgment delivered in Yola, the Adamawa state capital on October 28, 2023, where in the Chairperson of the tribunal, Justice Theodora Obi Uloho, dismissed the petition filed by the APC candidate on the grounds that the petition lacked legal ingredients to upturn Fintiri’s victory.
Uloho, in her 176-page judgment, noted that Aisha Binani failed to prove her allegations of over-voting by not tendering documents to prove her case.