TOPE FAYEHUN, in this piece, writes on the long walk to victory of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Fintiri, in the just-concluded governorship election in Adamawa State
At last, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Friday morning declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Ahmadu Fintiri, the winner of the Adamawa State governorship election.
The Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Andrew Haruna, declared the result in Yola after the supplementary election in 44 polling units across 14 local government areas of the state.Fintiri polled 376,552 votes to defeat incumbent Governor Jibrilla Bindow of the All Progressives Congress who got 336,386 votes.
The Returning Officer said, Sen. Abdul-Azeez Nyako of the ADC scored 113,237 votes to place third, followed by Emmanuel Bello of the SDP, who garnered 29,792 votes
According to him, the total votes cast was 899,097, out of which 871,307 votes were valid and 27,790 votes, invalid.
Prior to this development, the commission had declared as inconclusive, the governorship election which took place on March 9 in all 21 local government Areas in the state.
The INEC returning officer for the state, Andrew Haruna, who made the declaration at the INEC office, hinged his decision on the fact that the margin between the two leading candidates was smaller than the total number of registered votes where elections were either cancelled or did not take place at all.
According to him, the already collated results showed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Umar Fintiri, has polled total votes of 367,471 when his closest rival and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Muhammed Bindow, polled a total of 334,995.
The margin of lead is 32,476 votes, which is smaller than 40,988 representing the total number of registered votes in the 44 polling units where results were cancelled.
Citing the relevant sections of INEC election guidelines to back his decision to declare the election inconclusive, Haruna said:
“On page 17 paragraph C, the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections on the margin of lead principle states that where the margin of lead between the two leading candidates in an election is not in excess of the total number of voters registered in polling units where elections are not counted or voided, in line with Section 26 and 53 of Electoral Act, the Returning officer shall decline to make a return until votes have taken place in the affected polling units and the results collated in to the relevant forms for declaration and return”
“This is the margin of lead principle and shall apply wherever necessary in making returns in all elections to which this Regulations and Guidelines apply. And, therefore, I declare this exercise inconclusive,” he stated.
However, INEC had earlier scheduled a supplementary election for March 23 after the initial March 9 election was declared inconclusive, but the court restrained the commission from conducting the election owing to an ex parte motion filed by the Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD) that claimed that its logo was excluded from the ballot paper for the March 9 election.
The commission later announced that it would obey an order by the Yola High Court to suspend its planned supplementary governorship election in the state, even though the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Kashim Gaidam, disclosed that the court has no jurisdiction to stop the commission from conducting the election.
The REC revealed that
“As a law-abiding institution, we will respect the ruling of the court on the supplementary election.”
He said the commission has filed appropriate notices and counter-motions to fight the order in court. “The commission will be represented by a team headed by a Senior Advocate before the High Court here in Yola tomorrow. And we would be waiting to hear the outcome or the decision the court will take tomorrow,” he said.
While delivering his ruling, Justice Abdul-Aziz Waziri said the MRDD’s application “is pregnant with merit and must be granted”. “The defendant herein, the INEC is restrained whether by themselves, their executives, servants, privies, representative nominees or any other person or persons from proceeding with the supplementary election in respect of Adamawa State Governorship pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice,” he ruled.
After the ruling was vacated, fixed Thursday 28 March for the state governorship supplementary election. INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Kassim Gaidam, said the decision to hold the election on that day was based on the court ruling.
He said, “The court this morning vacated the order restraining INEC from going ahead with the conduct of the supplementary election, consequently the commission is now free to go ahead and conclude the election as was done in other states of the federation.
“As a result of this development, the commission at the highest level, in consultation with security agencies, has decided that the supplementary election should hold on Thursday, March 28, 2019. The election will go on as was arranged.”
But the APC rejected the new date fixed by INEC for the conduct of the election. Making the position of the party known, the Organising Secretary of the party, Ahmed Lawal, announced that INEC did not consult the party before fixing the new date for the poll. He alleged that information had filtered out earlier that the election would be held on Thursday, March 28.
“INEC failed to consult with political parties involved in this election before going ahead to fix a new date for the re-run. We, therefore, became suspicious due to rumours in town earlier that supplementary election would be conducted on Thursday and it turned out to be true.
“We are not afraid of re-run election, but INEC should have done the right thing. How can you fix an election on a working day? Are civil servants not going to participate in the election? We are going to forward our protest on the matter to INEC,’’ he said.
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However, the APC who had earlier threatened not to participate in the supplementary election backtracks on boycott threat and called on its supporters to get prepared to participate in the governorship supplementary election.
Alhaji Ahmed Lawal, State Organising Secretary of the party, gave the directive, said that the party reviewed its earlier decision to boycott the poll and has resolved to fully participate in the poll.
He, however, said that in spite of the INEC refusal to heed their call to reschedule the election, the APC would still win. He appealed to the APC family and supporters not to be deterred by INEC’s action, but to go out en masse to vote for the candidate of the party.
“Having consulted all the party stakeholders, we have resolved to participate in the supplementary election fixed for tomorrow. Our earlier boycott threat was not out of fear, but to encourage participation by other political parties who had been taken unawares by the date for the supplementary election.
“To us, we will participate and win the rerun even as INEC has refused to rescind its decision to hold the rerun tomorrow. We appeal to APC supporters to come out and vote for APC massively so as to ensure victory in the election.
“Adamawa is an APC state, and with the developmental strides recorded by Governor Mohammed Bindow, it is a sure qualification for winning an election,’ Lawal said.
However, before Fintri was eventually declared the winner of the election, analysts had predicted that the election would no doubt, be a straight fight between Governor Bindow Jubrilla of the ruling APC and Fintiri, who was the Speaker of the Adamawa House of Assembly in 2014 and also served as Acting Governor in July 2014, following the impeachment of the then Gov. Murtala Nyako.
It was clear to observers that it may be difficult for the ruling party to retain the state base on the fact that the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar hailed from the state.
Apart from that, pundits observed that the victory secured by the PDP in the presidential and National Assembly polls in the state, will no doubt serve as a major booster for the major opposition and its candidate in the poll.
Having served as acting-governor in the state, Fintiri understands what it takes to win the election, hence embarked on series of evangelism. In the process, according to analysts, the governor-elect reached out to the weakest links of Governor Bindow, the Numan federation to re-do his homework in those areas to improve the party’s popularity.
He equally evangelized no fewer than 10 political parties who resolved to work for the PDP in the state to ensure victory for the party.
The candidates are Sadiq Khaliel of MRDD, Danjuma Musa of FJP, Naziru Sa’ad of ZLP, Ahmed Hassan of DA and Salihu Danjuma of APM.
Others are Abdullahi Usman of NCP, Bappari Umar of KOWA, Lami Musa of PPN, Elizabeth Isa of CAP and Frank Simon of MEGA Party.
However, analysts observed that while PDP waxing stronger, Bindow and APC was battling with challenges of court cases and the aftermath of primaries internal crisis rocking the party in the state.
Before the election, the governor at a time relocated to Abuja in a desperate fight to retain his ticket because of series of petitions and court cases incurred from aggrieved aspirants in the state.
While some of the political big players in party vowed to remain in the party to ensure that the governor does not return, some accused the governor of betrayal and vowed that they must stay back to pay him back in his coin.
According to some of them, the governor pushed them into primaries, which he knew would not take place and connived with the national leadership of the party to ‘steal ‘ aspirants’ money after they purchased forms and incurred campaign expenses.
“For some of us that they conveniently robbed in Adamawa State APC primaries, our tears have dried up, but for Bindow his tears after next year’s governorship election will not dry for a day, because he will continue weeping from one political sin he committed to another; and there will be none to console him, because he planted tears in many families in Adamawa State,” an aspirant said.
Also, the former SGF, Babachir David Lawal, had on different occasions insisted that Bindow’s days in Adamawa Government House were numbered and that there was no political magic that could change the minds of the people to re-elect him.
Babachir said the governor planted a political time bomb long before the congresses and the last month’s primaries. He said, “the issue of fractionalization of APC in Adamawa State did not start with the congress, it started before.
“It was during the launch of President Buhari’s re-election project, where the governor and his group boycotted and organised a parallel meeting on the analysts for the event. The meeting of the governor and Mustapha is not a stakeholders’ meeting, but a briefing by him to his commissioners and other political appointees.
“The Adamawa APC crisis started when this government came into office when the majority of the legacy party members in APC did not get reasonable appointments. The appointments made by this government then and even now, the majority of them are of nPDP, where the governor came from. That is what culminated and matured into two different groups at the congresses.”
However, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, had boasted that the party would keep Adamawa within the APC family. According to him, the misunderstanding among stakeholders in the state will resolve to ensure that the party retains the state.
Analysts, however, noted that the late intervention of Boss Mustapha in the lingering crisis in the state chapter of the party, could not change the minds of the electorate who had waited for the party to resolve their crisis and go into the gubernatorial polls as one indivisible entity.
Analysts, however, believe that the crisis within the rank and file of the ruling party in the state, contributed to the success of the PDP in the just-concluded poll.
