The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has now officially declared the candidate of the Peoples democratic Party (PDP, Governor Ahmadu Umar Fintiri, as the winner of the 2023 Adamawa governorship election, thus ending days of suspense and outright ballyhoo on the poll that went down to the wire.
The Returning Officer for the election, Mele Lamido, announced that Fintiri polled a total of 430,861 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sen. Aishatu Dahiru Binani of the APC, who garnered 396,788 votes.
The commission made the final declaration on the heels of the conclusion of collation of results on Tuesday afternoon in Yola.
INEC had on Monday suspended collation of results following the illegal declaration of the APC candidate, Sen. Aishatu Binani, as the winner by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari.
However, INEC Commissioner for Voter Education, Barrister Festus Okoye, promptly described the announcement by REC as usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer for the election and therefore, declared it illegal, null and void.
The Governorship election had earlier held on March 18, 2023 in Adamawa state, but was declared inconclusive by the returning officer because of glitches in some units and the fact that the affected expectee votes in units were more than the margin of victory recorded by Fintiri over Binani.
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