By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja
The Supreme Court, has affirmed the election of Governor Ahmed Fintiri as the authentic governor of Adamawa State.
This is following the withdrawal of an appeal bought before it by the Social Democratic Party(SDP) and its governorship candidate, Dr Umar Ardo, challenging Fintiri’s victory for want of merit.
SDP and its candidate had scored 6,000 votes and challenged the declaration of Fintiri and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who polled over 430,000 votes at the March 18, 2023 election.
Specifically, Ardo and his party, argued that the election was not conducted in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
The appellants in their submissions through Sylvester Imhanobe, upon discovering the hint of the apex court, the appellants withdrew their appeal, having been found unmeritorious.
Justice John Inyang Okoro, who led a 5-man panel of Justices of the Court, dismissed the appeal without any cost against the appellants, thereby, affirmed the election of Fintiri as being validly elected and lawfully declared as the Governor of Adamawa State.
Ardo and his party had filed a petition at the Adamawa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal after Fintiri, the candidate of PDP, was declared the winner of the poll.
The petitioners had sought the nullification of Fintiri’s election on the grounds that there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act, corrupt practices, threats and violence during the voting exercise.
However, the tribunal, led by Theodora Uloho, dismissed the petition for being incompetent and not properly filed.
They however, headed to supreme court for further interpretation.
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