INEC obeys court, postpones Adamawa supplementary governorship election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will obey a court order suspending the Adamawa supplementary governorship election.

INEC stated this on Thursday afternoon during a briefing by its spokesperson, Festus Okoye.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how a High Court in Adamawa on Thursday ordered the indefinite postponement of the governorship election in the state.

The judge, Abdul-azeez Waziri, said the polls should be put on hold until he rules on an application for an interlocutory injunction barring INEC from conducting the polls.

The judge then adjourned the matter to Tuesday to give the ruling.
While speaking on Thursday, Mr Okoye said INEC would appeal the injunction to ensure it is lifted. Pending when it succeeds on that, however, the commission would obey the order and suspend the governorship election in Adamawa indefinitely.

“While the commission has also complied with the order, it has equally taken steps to vacate this and dismiss the action,” Mr Okoye said.

Adamawa is one of six states where INEC declared the governorship election inconclusive because the margin of victory was less than the cancelled votes in each state. The other five are Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Kano and Sokoto.

The supplementary governorship elections are set to hold in the remaining five states on Saturday.

However, while the supplementary governorship election in Adamawa will be postponed, INEC says it will hold elections in two state assembly constituencies in the state.

The two constituencies where legislative elections will hold are; Uba/Gaya and Nassarawo/Binyeri in Hong and Mayo-Belwa local government areas respectively.

The Nassarawo-Binueri State Assembly election was deferred due to the death of the APC candidate before the election while the Uba/Gaya State Assembly election could not be concluded on March 9 due to the cancellation of results in some polling units.

“So in relation to Adamawa State, we are going to hold elections in two state constituency.

“Notwithstanding the legal action against the supplementary election, elections will hold in Nasarawa LGA in Myobawa constituents where the election had to be countermanded following the death of a candidate before the polls as well as the Uba/ Gaya state constituency,” Mr Okoye said.

Background

The Adamawa governorship election held on March 9 was declared inconclusive by the electoral commission because the margin of victory was less than the cancelled votes in the state.

Before this decision, Mr Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was leading his closest challenger, incumbent governor Umar Bindow of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

A political party, the Movement for Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD) and its supposed candidate, Eric Theman, had asked a state high court to cancel the election on the grounds that the party’s logo was not on the ballot paper.

Despite the opposition by the PDP, it was the application by the MRDD that led to the order of the state high court in Yola for the election to be postponed indefinitely.