GOVERNOR AND DEPUTY GOVERNOR CANDIDATES IN ADAMAWA WILL BE GIVEN CERTIFICATES OF RETURN.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will give certificates of return to Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri and Deputy Governor-elect Professor Kaletapwa Farauta on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, INEC announced that incumbent governor Fintiri had won the extremely contentious supplemental election for governor of Adamawa State.

Senator Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who received 396,788 votes, was defeated by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Fintiri, who received a total of 430,861 votes, according to the state’s returning officer, Professor Mohammed Mele.

“The Commission will present certificates of return to the Adamawa State Governor and Deputy Governor-elect at 3pm today at the Conference Room, INEC Headquarters, Maitama, Abuja,” INEC tweeted following the end of the countrywide supplementary polls and the proclamation of winners.

On Sunday, INEC revoked the statement that Binani had won the governor of Adamawa poll.

That came after Binani had been declared the winner of the Saturday’s supplementary gubernatorial election by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa state, Hudu Yunusa Ari.

The Electoral Act’s rules were broken by Ari’s declaration.

When a state’s governor is up for election, only the returning officer has the authority under Section 25 of the Electoral Act of 2022 to proclaim the winner and announce the results at the state collation center.

Following this, INEC called Ari to Abuja and pronounced his proclamation to be null and a usurpation of the collation and returning officer’s authority.

Ari was also instructed by INEC to avoid participating in any electoral umpire activity or the election in Adamawa State.