HAPPENING NOW: Crisis Rocks Adamawa Over Unlawful Announcement Of Binani As Governor-Elect
Crisis Rocks Adamawa Over Unlawful Announcement Of Binani As Governor-Elect
Hundreds of Adamawa State residents were seen protesting on Monday over the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Yunusa Hudu Ari’s announcement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Aishatu Dahiru Binani, as the winner of the Adamawa State governorship election on Sunday.
The protesting residents stormed the major roads of the state capital, Yola in large numbers in a short clip posted by AIT on their verified Twitter handle captioned, “Protest in Yola over REC announcement of APC’s Aisha Binani as Adamawa Governor-elect.”
On Sunday morning, Yunusa Hudu Ari crept into the state governorship collation centre and declared Binani as the winner of the governorship election.
Prior to her declaration, Binani was trailing Governor Ahmadu Fintiri by 31,249 votes, according to the official results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
However, despite receiving 421, 524 votes to defeat Binani’s 390, 275 votes, Fintiri’s vote could not be returned by the state returning officer, Professor Mohammed Mele, a Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Maiduguri.
Mele said the margin of victory did not exceed the number of cancelled votes in 69 polling units with a total number of Permanent Voter Cards collected of 37,016.
The Adamawa REC, who had abruptly suspended the collation exercise until 11 a.m. on Sunday, sneaked into the collation centre at 9:00 a.m. to declare Binani as the winner.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission swiftly declared this declaration null and void.
Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, on Sunday, warned Nigerians about an alleged plan to undermine the democratic wish of the people of Adamawa State in the governorship election in the state, describing Sunday’s incident as a case study of the shambolic nature of the 2023 elections in general.
Just In: Protest in Yola over REC announcement of APC's Aisha Binani as Adamawa Governor-elect pic.twitter.com/XBR3eLcUhu
— Africa Independent Television (@AIT_Online) April 17, 2023
