The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Aishatu Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, has expressed support for the declaration of the governorship election in the state as inconclusive.
Recall that the state collation officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, had declared the election inconclusive due to the margin of votes.
The incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who is seeking re-election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 421,524, while Ahmed scored 390,275.
Mele 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, during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on Friday, welcomed the decision, alleging that violence and irregularities were recorded in 16 of the 21 local government areas (LGAs) in the state.
In her words, “My position is that the INEC REC did very well by declaring the result inconclusive and my reasons are simple.
“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 were really, as far as I’m concerned, concocted figures.”
She noted that several of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices were bypassed, allowing for over-voting and intimidation of electoral staff in some locations.
According to her, the only way for the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) to “come out clean” was to declare the election inconclusive.