Since December 5, the Court of Appeal in Abuja has postponed its decision in the Adamawa State governorship case involving the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidates for governor. Today, December 18, is the scheduled delivery date.
At the centre of the contentious election on March 18 were Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani of the APC and the PDP’s Umaru Ahmadu Fintiri, the current governor. Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal declared PDP candidate Umaru Ahmadu Fintiri the winner.
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The Court of Appeal was scheduled to deliver the ruling by 12 p.m., according to a judgement delivery notice that our publication was able to view and was verified to have been served to the legal representatives of Binani and Fintiri.
The notice instructed the attorneys for the two political parties to handle the notice and provide themselves for the delivery of the judgement as required by law.
In addition to confirming the appellate court’s ruling to our correspondent, Bukola Gaa, the President of the Court of Appeal’s Personal Assistant on Media, added that all required security precautions and other steps had been taken to ensure a smooth delivery of the judgement.
On December 5, following the two parties’ arguments in favour and against the election, a three-member panel of court justices reserved judgement in the appeal.
The respondents—INEC, Fintiri, and the PDP—through their various counsels prayed the court to dismiss the appeal as being incompetent and lacking in merit, while a former Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Akin Olujimi, SAN, who represented Binani and the APC at the hearing, appealed for setting aside the judgement of the Tribunal which affirmed the election of the PDP and Fintiri.
In October, the Adamawa State Governorship Electoral Petitions Tribunal denied Binani’s petition to remove Fintiri from office.
Binani had petitioned the Tribunal to overturn INEC’s announcement of Fintiri as the election’s victor.
Binani requested that the Adamawa State governorship election be cancelled due to non-compliance with the electoral act in her appeal, which named INEC, Fintiri, and the PDP as the first, second, and third respondents, respectively.
In its ruling, which was given by Justice T. O. Uloho, the Tribunal rejected the case as being without merit and upheld Fintiri’s declaration as the winner of the March 18 governorship race.
