The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will present a certificate of return to the governor elect in Adamawa State today.
Following an inconclusive election in the State on 18 March 2023, INEC held a supplementary election in April. The front-runners were the candidate for All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aisha Dahiru “Binani”, and the candidate for People’s Democratic Party (PDP), incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.
At some point, there was confusion as the Resident Electoral Commissioner hastily declared Binani the winner. Collation had not been concluded at the time of that announcement. The Commission has initiated disciplinary processes against the REC, Barr. Hudu Yunusa Ari.
Upon conclusion of collation, INEC declared Fintiri winner with 430,861 votes while Binani came second with 398,788.
Now, in a tweet on Wednesday, April 19, INEC has announced that it will present the certificate of return to Fintiri at 3 pm. It wrote: “Following the conclusion of supplementary elections nationwide and the declaration of winners, the Commission will present certificates of return to the Adamawa State Governor and Deputy Governor-elect at 3pm today.”
It is unclear whether Binani intends to challenge the outcome of the election. 52 years old Binani is currently a Senator of the Federal Republic. She would have been the first elected female governor in Nigeria. The closest Nigeria had come to electing a female governor was in 2015 when the late Aisha Alhassan (Mama Taraba) lost the Taraba State gubernatorial re-run.
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