The governorship race in Adamawa state has taken an unexpected turn as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Aishatu Dahiru Binani, was named the victor before the votes had been fully tallied.
Even though the collation of results, which was supposed to resume at 11 a.m. on Sunday, had not yet begun, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa, declared Binani the victor.
As required by the Electoral Act, this was carried out by the REC rather than the returning officer.
He allocated 221,303 votes to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
The figures allocated to Fintiri represent a 50 per cent shortfall of his initial score of over 400,000 votes.
WITHIN NIGERIA had on March 20, 2023, reported that the Adamawa State governorship election had been declared inconclusive, even as Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri leads with 421,524.
Declaring the polls inclusive, the returning officer, Prof Mohammed Mele said the election was inconclusive because the cancelled votes exceeded the margin of victory.
When collation opened after the supplementary election on Saturday, the returning officer, Mele, after collating results from about 10 local government areas, adjourned collation to 11:00 am on Sunday.
However, as early as 9:00 am, the REC in company with the police commissioner, Mohammed Barde, Director of the Department of State Services and Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, announced Binani as the winner.
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