The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Yola on Monday affirmed the election of Ahmadu Fintiri as the governor. He ran on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, platform.
The candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Dr Umar Ardo, and his party had challenged Fintiri’s victory before the tribunal, alleging corrupt practices, threats and violence at the election.
Ardo, who joined INEC and 16 others as respondents in the election petition, prayed the tribunal to nullify the entire exercise, but the chairman of the three-man tribunal, Justice Theodora Uloho dismissed the petition for lacking in merit, defective and incompetent.
“The petition is incongruous and not properly instituted before the tribunal. The petitioners are not certain about what they want”, she declared.
Mr Sylvester Emmanuel, counsel to Ardo, said the petitioner would file a petition to upturn the verdict.
Deputy Governor of Adamawa State, Mrs Kaletapwa George-Farauta described the verdict as a victory for democracy.
She stated that in spite of the petition, the Gov. Fintiri’s administration would continue to be magnanimous in victory and called on the petitioners to join hands with government in building a new Adamawa.
