The Returning Officer for the Adamawa State governorship election, Prof Mohammed Mele, on Tuesday declared Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, the winner of the state governorship poll.
Fintiri secured a second term in office having scored 430,861 votes to beat the rival All Progressives Congress candidate, Aisha Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, who amassed 398,788 votes.
Also on Tuesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission said it had asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, to draw the attention of “the appointing authority’’ to the behaviour of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari.
Fintiri’s victory took place 48 hours after Binani was controversially declared the governor-elect by Yunusa-Ari.
Binani was trailing Fintiri by over 31, 000 votes in the first round of the election held on March 18.
The electoral agency had declared the exercise inconclusive because the margin of lead did not exceed the number of cancelled votes in 69 polling units with 37, 016 voters.
The collation of results of the April 15 supplementary election was going on when the REC took over the duty of the returning officer and announced the APC candidate as the winner sparking an uproar.
In response, INEC promptly declared his action null and void and also summoned the REC and his colleagues in the Adamawa State office to Abuja.
The commission in a letter by the Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony further barred Yunusa-Ari from coming to the office and directed the Administrative Secretary to take charge of the INEC office in the state.
Mele at the resumed collation of the results on Tuesday pronounced Fintiri as the election winner to a wild jubilation by the anxious residents of the state.
The event was witnessed by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.
Announcing the winner, the returning officer said, “Ahmadu Fintiri, having satisfied the requirement of the law, is hereby returned duly re-elected.”
The total number of registered voters was 2,196, 566 while the accredited voters were put at 876,387.
The returning officer said the valid votes were 853,819, rejected votes, were 15,287 and the total votes cast were 869,106.
