INEC declares Fintiri winner of  Adamawa guber poll

Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has emerged winner of the 2023 gubernatorial election in Adamawa State.

Fintiri had locked horns with the only woman-governorship candidate in the 2023 Guber polls, Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the Adamawa governorship poll inconclusive

In the result declared earlier, Fintiri polled 421,524 votes, while Binani Dahiru scored 390,275. Fintiri had defeated Binani with a margin of over 30,000 votes. The governor also won the election in 13 of Adamawa’s 21 local government areas while Binani won in the remaining eight.

But the state’s Collation Officer, Prof. Mohammed Mele announced the cancellation of elections in 69 polling units, which affected no fewer than 37,016 potential voters with PVCs in those units.

Although the results had shown that Fintiri scored the highest votes, INEC said the cancelled votes were more than the margin of victory between him and the runner-up, Binani. It, therefore, declared the governorship election in Adamawa State inconclusive.

However, at the conclusion of the supplementary election in the state on Saturday, April 15, the State collation officer, Prof. Mele, had declared 10 of the 20 local government results before the controversial declaration of Binani as the Winner of the Guber poll by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Barr. Hudu Yunusa Ari; an action the Commission declared illegal and unconstitutional.

The Commission suspended further collation of results on Sunday, after the incumbent governor won 7 of the 10 LGAs

Aggregation of the supplementary results with the earlier results polled by the candidates showed that Fintiri had maintained the lead with a total of 425,816 votes as against Binani’s 393,403.

At the resumed collation on Tuesday, the INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the Election, Prof. Mohammed Mele declared Fintiri the winner of the 2023 Gubernatorial election in Adamawa State.

According to the final results, Fintiri polled 430, 861 votes to beat his closest rival, Binani of the APC, who scored 398,788 votes

The commission, therefore, declared incumbent Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, returned as Adamawa Governor-elect.