Adamawa Poll: The Court Sets Requirements Before Hearing Binani’s Request

The court has ordered Binani to submit her argument regarding whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the application in writing within three days.

Senator Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru requested a court order preventing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from overturning her declaration as the winner of the governorship election in Adamawa State. However, Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja has temporarily declined to hear the application.

Binani had requested permission from the court on Monday to file an application for judicial review of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) administrative decision from April 16 regarding her declaration as the victor of the governorship elections of Adamawa State held on March 18 and the April 15 supplementary elections.

In an exparte application submitted on April 17, 2023, the request for permission to file the judicial review application was included.

When the case was called, Justice Ekwo instructed Mr. Mohammed Sherif, the attorney for Binani, to first address the court on jurisdictional issues.

The court has ordered Binani to submit her argument regarding whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the application in writing within three days.

Although Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had declared his appearance, the court rejected to hear him on the grounds that he had not been served with court documents related to the case.

Binani and her party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), are requesting an order of prohibition and certiorari in order to stop the electoral umpire and its representatives from proceeding with the declaration of the election’s winner while her request for judicial review is being considered.

The PDP and Ahmadu Fintiri, the party’s governorship candidate, are named as the first, second, and third defendants in the Commission’s lawsuit, respectively.

The application was submitted in accordance with Order 34 Rules 1a, Order 3(1) & 3(2) a, b, c, Order 6 of the Federal High Court’s 2019 Civil Procedure Rules, Section 251 (1)q & r of the 1999 Constitution, and Sections 149 & 152 of the Electoral Act of 2022.

The senator made the claim that “the only court with power on a declaration made from the conduct of an election is only the Election petition Tribunal set up by the 1999 Constitution” in the grounds upon which the application was submitted.

She claims that INEC “declared her as the winner of the gubernatorial election and was thereby returned as elected” following the completion of voting in the April 15 supplementary governorship election and the subsequent collation of the same results.

According to the applicants, any candidate who is not pleased with the declaration may seek redress from the tribunal, if applicable.

She criticized the PDP and its candidate Governor Ahmadu Fintiri for causing a crisis that led to the cancellation of her declaration on April 16, stating that INEC “has no powers to cancel or declare the declaration as been made as null and void.”

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“INEC usurped the authority of the Election Petition Tribunal and declared the declaration of Senator Aisha Dahiru Ahmed as the victor null and illegal after the results were announced.

“The first respondent lacks the necessary authority to declare an election in which the winner has been declared null and void,” the court ruled.

The petitioner further asserts that because INEC is a government entity, the court may review its decisions, records, and acts, and that only the court, not INEC, has the authority to declare an INEC official’s activities invalid.