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After days of controversies and drama, the incumbent Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has been declared the winner of the 2023 governorship election.

This came after a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, refused to hear an application by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the state, Aisha Dahiru Ahmed Binani to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from announcing the winner of the supplementary governorship election.

Declaring the results, the Returning Officer of the governorship polls, Professor Muhammed Mele, said the governor polled a total of 430,861 votes.

Aishatu Binani of the APC polled a total of 396,788 votes.

Supplementary election results:

Total number of registered voters: 42,929
Total number of accredited voters; 16,422
APC scored 6,513
PDP scored 9,337
Number of rejected votes: 399
Total votes cast: 16,398

According to the whole results as tabulated by INEC, a total number of registered voters is 2, 196, 566 while the total number of accredited voters is 876, 387.

APC in the final results polled a total of 398788 votes while PDP polled a total of 430861 votes, with 15287 votes rejected.

The total votes cast is 869106.

Binani had approached the Federal High Court to stop INEC from announcing the winner of the supplementary election.

But when the matter came up on Tuesday, Justice Inyang Ekwo directed Binani’s lawyers led by Mohammed Sheriff, Esquire, to address the court on the issue of jurisdiction within three days.

The judge also refused the counsel for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, Afeez Matomi, Esquire, from making a submission because he has not been served with the processes.

Binani was unlawfully declared the winner of the election by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Barr. Yusuf Hudu Ari.

Her lawyers had approached the court saying that after her declaration as the winner of the election, INEC usurped the powers of the tribunal by declaring her return as thanks and void.

Her lawyers further averred that Fintiri lost the April 15 governorship election and resorted to “fighting and causing public disturbance which led to the beating and man handling of one of the first respondent (INEC)’s staff.”