The Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed a petition seeking to nullify the election of Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The Action People’s Party and its governorship candidate, Bitrus Meda, had dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission, Fintiri and the PDP to the tribunal, challenging the outcome of the March 28 results on the ground of unlawful exclusion.
Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Adediran Adebara, dismissed the petition and slammed a legal cost of N1m against the petitioner.
Citing grounds for the dismissal, Justice Adebara said the petitioners failed to prove a case of unlawful exclusion beyond reasonable doubt and therefore struck out the petition.
The judge awarded N300,000 each in favour of first, second and third respondents, while the fourth respondent, INEC, got N100,000.
Counsel to the PDP, A.T Shehu, praised the judgment, saying, “We knew that the petition was frivolous and the tribunal just confirmed our position.”
On his part, counsel to the petitioners, Solomon Garba, said they had accepted the judgment.
According to Governor Fintiri, the ruling is “a confirmation of the mandate of the people of Adamawa State”.
