Governor Ahmadu Fintiri has emerged as the winner of what some might describe as a drama-filled supplementary election in Adamawa State exactly one month after the March 18 governorship elections.
In last Saturday’s rerun, Fintiri, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, polled 9,337 votes, besting Senator Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 6,513 votes.
At the end of the entire exercise, Fintiri polled 430,861 votes, defeating Binani’s 398,788 votes and winning a second term as governor of Adamawa.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC announced the results at 5:49 pm on Tuesday.
Drama and Intrigues
The announcement was preceded by a series of arguable political intrigues. With last month’s governorship election declared inconclusive by INEC, a supplementary election was scheduled for last Saturday.
However, on Sunday, as collation was underway, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa Ari, prematurely declared Binani as the winner, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Incidentally, results had been declared for only 10 of the 20 local government areas LGAs showed Fintiri in the lead, having won in seven LGAs next to Binani’s three.
The declaration by Ari was quickly followed by an acceptance speech by the APC candidate.
In response, irate opposition members took their anger out on an INEC national commissioner, whom they mistook for the REC, assaulting him.
Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, in response to the assault said
“A former Vice Chancellor of Usman Dan Fodio University, a senior citizen was stripped naked and dragged. This commission will not allow that to stand.”
He also urged the security agencies to unmask those behind the particular act. “They must be arrested, they must be investigated, and they must be prosecuted. A national commissioner cannot be treated as if he or she is a common criminal.”
Need For Supplementary Elections
On March 20, INEC declared last month’s Adamawa governorship election inconclusive.
INEC state collation officer, Prof Muhammadu Mele, made te decision due to the margin of votes.
According to the figures announced, Binani had 390,275 votes, while Fintiri got 421,524 votes.
“Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016,” Mele stated at the time.
He added that “based on these findings and analysis as stated in the electoral laws’ where the margin between two candidates is lesser than the total number of collected PVCs in areas where elections were not held, the election is declared inconclusive.”
