The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Adamawa governorship election, Senator Aisha Binani Dahiru and the Party have filed a motion exparte before the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking a judicial review of the administrative decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on April 16 in respect of her declaration as the winner of the polls held on March 18 and the supplementary poll of April 15.
It would be recalled that controversy trailed Binani’s declaration as the winner of the governorship election by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yususa, on Sunday.
However, INEC waded in immediately, saying the declaration was null and void and subsequently on Monday suspended the REC involved.
In the application ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/510/2023 and filed by Hussain Zajariyau, SAN and his team listed APC as the 2nd Applicant in the suit the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate/incumbent governor of the state, Ahmadu Fintiri, were also listed as 1st to 3rd Respondents.
Senator Aisha, applied for leave of the court to allow her to seek “an order of prohibition and certiorari removing to this court for the purpose of being set aside the administrative decision of the 1st Respondent made on 16th April 2023 in respect of the declaration of the winner from the gubernatorial election of Adamawa State held on the 18th of March, 2023 and the supplementary election held on 15th April 2023.”
She also asked for an order “preventing the 1st Respondent, its agent, assign or any person acting on its behalf from taking any further steps towards the declaration of the winner from the gubernatorial election of Adamawa State held on the 18th of March and the supplementary election held on 15th April 2023, pending the determination of the application for judicial review”.
The application noted that INEC’s cancellation of the initial declaration means it is usurping the powers of the election petition, being the only court vested with powers to do so from the conduct of an election.