INEC Did Well By Declaring Adamawa Guber Poll Inconclusive – Binani

Adamawa State’s All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Aishatu Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, has expressed support for the inconclusive declaration of the State’s gubernatorial election.

Recall the state collation officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, had declared the election inconclusive due to the margin of votes.

Re-election seeking governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 421,524, while Ahmed garnered 390,275.

He 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.”

However, Ahmed during a Friday programme on Channels Television, welcomed the inconclusive decision, adding that violence and irregularities were recorded in 16 of the 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the State.

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 was really, as far as I’m concerned, concocted figures.”

She added that several of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices were bypassed, allowing for over-voting and intimidation of electoral staff in a number of locations.

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“[For instance] if the BVAS accredited only 10 people, you’ll find out that over 30 people must have voted. That is part of irregularities,” Ahmed added.

According to Binani, the only way for the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) to “come out clean” was to declare that result inconclusive.

Citing the Electoral Act, she maintained that INEC has the powers to review the results within seven days to determine whether any declaration was made under duress or where it failed to comply with the electoral laws and regulations.

Asked if she was fearful about returning to the State for a supplementary election, she answered in the negative.

“I’m never afraid, but all I’m asking is that let INEC please conduct a review on this said local governments so that it will bring out the real figures for all the candidates,” the APC candidate said.

“That is all I am asking, and as soon as that is done, we would be home and dry, and then we would be confident to go back to the field.”

On the possibility of becoming the first elected female governor, Binani said she feels great and happy.

“I’m not doing this for Binani; I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing it for every girl child in this country. It’s for all the women in Nigeria,” she added.