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Tag: Aisha Binani

  • Supreme Court reserves verdict on Binani’s suit against Adamawa Governor

    Supreme Court reserves verdict on Binani’s suit against Adamawa Governor

    The Supreme Court on Monday reserved judgment in the appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Aisha Dahiru, popularly called Binani, against the governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Fintiri.

    The tribunal and Court of Appeal had dismissed Binani’s petition challenging the victory of Finitiri in the governorship election held last year.

    The five-member panel led by John Okoro adjourned the matter for judgment after listening to the arguments of the parties involved in the matter.

    The main contention of Binani, through her counsel, Akin Olujimi, at the day’s proceeding, is that the controversial declaration by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Ari, was lawful.

  • Supreme Court reserves judgment on Binani’s suit against Fintiri

    Supreme Court reserves judgment on Binani’s suit against Fintiri

    Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Aisha Dahiru, popularly called Binani, against the governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Fintiri.

    The tribunal and Court of Appeal had dismissed Binani’s petition challenging the victory of Finitiri in the governorship election held last year.

    The five-member panel led by John Okoro adjourned the matter for judgment after listening to the arguments of the parties involved in the matter.

    The main contention of Binani, through her counsel, Akin Olujimi, at the day’s proceeding, is that the controversial declaration by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Ari, was lawful.

     Court of Appeal affirmed the victory of Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor of Adamawa State and dismissed Binani’s challenge as lacking in merit.

    It also awarded the cost of N500,000 in favour of Fintiri and the PDP against Binani.

    That judgment aligned with the verdict of the tribunal on October 28 which dismissed Binani’s petition for failing to prove her allegations of over-voting by not tendering documents to prove her case faulting the outcome of the election.

    Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Fintiri as the winner of a governorship.

    Fintiri polled 9,337 votes besting Senator ‘Binani’ who scored 6,513 votes.

    But in a controversial move, Ari, while collation was going on, prematurely declared Binani as the winner of the election. This was contrary to the provisions of Section 25 of the Electoral Act, 2022 which gives only the returning officer the right to declare election results for governorship polls.

    Immediately after the announcement, INEC declared the pronouncement as of no effect. It thereafter suspended the collation of results of the supplementary election in Adamawa and invited the REC, Returning Officer, and all officials involved to report to the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja.

    Later on, police authorities arrested Ari, confirming that the INEC REC was in their custody. He is still in court facing charges.

     

  • Adamawa Guber: Abuja High Court adjourns Aisha Binani’s suit till July 24

    Adamawa Guber: Abuja High Court adjourns Aisha Binani’s suit till July 24

    A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday adjourned the suit of the 2023 All Progressives Congress, (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Aishatu Dahiru, also known as Binani, till July 24, 2023, to take the substantive matter pending before the court

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that on July 10, 2023, an interim order stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from prosecuting the suspended Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Ari, pending the respondents to show cause why the application should not be granted.

    The court noted that it could not entertain the motion because the defendants were not served.

    Justice Donatus Okorowo adjourned the matter to 24 July for a hearing of the originating summons served on the defendants in the open court.

    Binani had, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/935/2023, sued INEC, the Inspector-General (IG) of Police, and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as 1st to 3rd, respectively.

    In the suit, the applicant is seeking the interpretation of Section 144 of the Electoral Act, 2022, and a preservative order seeking the maintenance of the status quo in the matter pending the determination of the suit.

    Binani’s counsel, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Chief Michael Aondoakaa, in the ex-parte motion earlier filed, drew the attention of the court to the fact that the matter was before a tribunal and it was time-bound.

    He, however, said that the star witness to his client, Hudu Yunusa Ari, was being harassed and prevented from giving evidence before the tribunal which if continued, would jeopardize the case of his client at the tribunal.

    He then urged the court to halt the harassment of the star witness in the petition before a governorship election petition tribunal challenging INEC’s declaration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Adamawa Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, as the winner on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

    Aondoakaa told the court that according to the relevant laws, since Binani had been declared by the INEC, the declaration could only be legally and authentically reversed, by a court of competent jurisdiction or a tribunal, adding that all parties have joined issues at the tribunal on the legality of the declaration of the Plaintiff initially, and its subsequent cancellation by INEC.

  • Adamawa Guber: Binani heads to court, sues INEC for voiding her declaration

    Adamawa Guber: Binani heads to court, sues INEC for voiding her declaration

    Following the declaration of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aisha Binani Dahiru as the winner of the Adamawa guber  re-run election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commission (REC) Habu Ari, as of when collation was still ongoing, Binani has dragged the electoral body to Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking a judicial review to void her declaration as the winner of the governorship elections held on March 18 and the supplementary poll of April 15, 2023.

    According to Senator Dahiru,  INEC has no power to cancel the declaration of a candidate as winner of an election, adding that the power resides in the election tribunal, not INEC.

    In an exparte application, Senator Dahiru is also seeking a court order to stop INEC and its agents from taking any further steps towards the declaration of the winner of the elections pending the determination of her application for judicial review.

    In her grounds of argument, the Senator stated that after the collation of results, INEC (the first respondent) declared her the winner of the elections but that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri (2nd & 3rd respondents) resorted to fighting and causing a public disturbance which led to the beating and manhandling of an INEC officer.

    This crisis, she said, led INEC to cancel the initial declaration which it had no power to do, as only the election petition tribunal is vested with such powers.

    Senator Binani contends that by cancelling her declaration, INEC had usurped the powers of the election petition tribunal which is the only court vested with powers to reverse a declaration in the conduct of an election.

    In documents put before the court, Senator Dahiru, through her lawyers led by, Hussaini Zakariyau, SAN, said a judicial review exists to enable the superior court to check the actions and decisions of inferior courts as well as the legislative and administrative arms of government, including agencies and public officers.

    She further submitted that INEC, being an agency of the government, can have its actions, records, and decisions checked by the court, even as she asserted that only a court can nullify the actions of an INEC official, not INEC itself.

  • Guber Polls: Collation suspended over result tempering in Adamawa

    Guber Polls: Collation suspended over result tempering in Adamawa

    An allegation of result tampering has led to the temporary suspension of collation in Adamawa state on Sunday night through Monday morning.

    The exercise is likely to resume on Monday by the time all the irregularities are sorted.

    Collation officers and even the state Commissioner of Police, Tola Afolabi had confirmed that there indeed were reported issues with results from Fufore but that they were working to make the necessary amends.

    Before collation came to a halt as INEC officials tried to sort the issue out, results from 20 of the 21 LGAs of the state had been collated by Sunday midnight.

    Results from Song and Michika LGA, respectively, were the last two to be collated after collation officers returned from break at just before 11pm.

    Song and Michika results are as follows:

    SONG (Central Zone)

    PDP 24,744
    APC 19,935
    NNPP 1582.

    MICHIKA (Northern Zone)
    PDP 30,262
    APC 15,793
    ABC 217

    The two brought to 20 the number of LGAs thus collated, leaving out just Fufore LGA, and bringing the votes of the leading PDP and APC candidates as follows: A total of 401,067 votes for the PDP and 366,498 to the APC.

    APC’s Aishatu Ahmed Binani is expected to get the highest votes from Fufore if INEC officials and party agents eventually agree on the result that will be announced from there.

    It’s still unclear if Aisha Bunani’s effort to make first elected female governor will come to fruition.