2023 Elections News
ADAMAWA: APC’s Binani reveals stance on inconclusive polls
Governor Fintiri, under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 421,524, while Binani scored 390,275.
Aishatu Ahmed, also known as Binani, who is running for governor of Adamawa State on the All Progressives Congress (APC) and has stated her support for the state’s governorship election being declared as inconclusive.
Because of the narrow margin of votes, Prof. Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, the state collation officer for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), pronounced the election inconclusive.
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He said, “Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016.”
Binani received 390,275 votes, compared to 421,524 for incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who is running for re-election on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket.
During the interview on ChannelsTV, Binani welcomed the decision, alleging that violence and irregularities were recorded in 16 of the 21 local government areas (LGAs) in the state.
“My position is that the INEC REC did very well by declaring the result inconclusive and my reasons are simple,” she said.
“Whoever saw or monitored the election of Adamawa State knows that the election was marred with violence, rigging, over-voting and all manner of irregularities.
“The figures that were deposed was really, as far as I’m concerned, concocted figures.”
According to her, several of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices were bypassed, allowing for over-voting and intimidation of electoral staff in a number of locations.
“[For instance] if the BVAS accredited only 10 people, you’ll find out that over 30 people must have voted. That is part of irregularities,” she added.
In Binani’s view, the only way for the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) to “come out clean” was to declare that result inconclusive.
Citing the Electoral Act, she argued that INEC has the powers to review the results within seven days to determine whether any declaration was made under duress or where it failed to comply with the electoral laws and regulations.
Asked if she was fearful about returning to the state for a supplementary election, she answered in the negative.
“I’m never afraid, but all I’m asking is that let INEC please conduct a review on this said local governments so that it will bring out the real figures for all the candidates,” the APC candidate said.
“That is all I am asking, and as soon as that is done, we would be home and dry, and then we would be confident to go back to the field.”
