JUST IN : Appeal Court Dismisses Binani’s Petition, Affirms Fintiri As Adamawa Gov

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the re-election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri as the governor of Adamawa State.

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Aisha Binani, had appealed against the judgment of the state governorship election petition tribunal which affirmed Fintiri’s re-election.

After the supplementary election, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party the winner of the polls with 430,861 votes while Binani of the APC polled 398,788 votes.

Binani then approached the tribunal citing allegations of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

On Monday, a three-man panel of the appeal court led by Justice Tunde Awotoye held that the appellant’s brief was invalid and is likely to be struck out for being incompetent.

Awotoye further held that the appellants filed an incompetent record of appeal contrary to the practice directions of the court and tried to make the appeal court speculate.

The appeal court also held that the appellant’s allegations of corrupt practices were not backed by sufficient evidence and were rightly struck out by the tribunal.

“The evidence of the appellants at the tribunal was hearsay evidence which deserves to be ignored.

“I hold that this appeal lacks merit and is dismissed,” the court held.

The appeal court also ordered Binani and APC to pay N1 million to the governor and his party,for filing a “vague” application.