Adamawa Governorship: APC, Keyamo Celebrate “illegal” Declaration Of Binani(Photos)

Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), celebrated the illegal declaration of its Adamawa State governorship candidate, Aisha Dahiru, as “governor-elect”.

The APC on Sunday used its verified Twitter account to post a congratulatory message to Mrs Dahiru, popularly called Binani, who was “illegally” declared as the winner of the governorship election, even though the collation process was still ongoing.

“Breaking: @inecnigeria has declared Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani the winner of the Adamawa State governorship election.

Binani is the first elected female Governor in Nigeria,” the tweet reads.

Aside from the party, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, also celebrated the illegality.

“Just woke up in the US to this wonderful news. I am screaming my head off here! This is such a glass-shattering watershed for the women of Nigeria! Huge congratulations to my sister, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani). At a point in the struggle we were speaking like a dozen times a day on phone!

“Special thanks to all those who worked so hard for this; special thanks to the good people of Adamawa State for smashing this hoodoo of gender bias; special thanks to the APC for making this possible; special thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari for providing such sterling leadership; special thanks to Nigerians for your support and prayers! Now, for the women of Nigeria, please go ye forth and conquer!” Mr Keyamo, an APC presidential camapaign spokesperson wrote.

However, the electoral body, INEC, has declared the results as “illegal” because the wrong official announced the results and declared the winner.

INEC, in a statement by its National Commissioner, Information & Voter Education, Festus Okoye, described its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Adamawa, Yunusa Ari, as a “usurper” for declaring the result. The commission also called for the suspension of the process.

“The action of the REC is a usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer. It is null, void and of no effect. Consequently, the collation of results of the supplementary election is hereby suspended,” the commission wrote.

Background

The Adamawa State governorship election of 18 March was declared inconclusive by INEC. The commission, thus, ordered a supplementary election in 69 polling units in the 20 local governments in the state. The eligible voters in the polling unit are less than 40,000.

Incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri was leading Mrs Binani by over 30,000 votes before the election was declared inconclusive.

Mrs Binani thus needed an almost 100 per cent turnout of voters and about 90 per cent votes for her in the 69 units to emerge the winner.

The supplementary election was held on Saturday and collation was ongoing before Mr Ari declared Mrs Binani the winner.