The Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo, has dismissed the lawsuit brought by Aisha Dahiru-Ahmed, a.k.a. Binani, the All Progressives Congress candidate for governor of Adamawa.

The suit was filed against INEC, the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The APC candidate had asked the court to conduct a judicial review of INEC’s decision to reverse her earlier declaration as the winner of the election by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

Binani’s counsel, Mohammed Sheriff, told Justice Ekwo during the case’s resumed hearing on Wednesday that a notice of discontinuance had been filed to that effect and urged the court to dismiss the case, NAN reports.

The lawyer, who informed the court that many issues had arisen between the last adjournment date and the present, begged the court to dismiss the suit.

However, Justice Ekwo reminded Sheriff that on the last adjourned date, an order was issued directing him to address the court on whether the court had jurisdiction to hear the case or not.

In light of Sheriff’s disregard for the court’s directive, the judge determined that dismissing the case was the proper course of action.

“I hereby make an order dismissing this suit,” Justice Ekwo declared.

The judge had, on April 18, refused to hear an ex-parte motion filed by Binani. He had instead ordered the APC candidate’s counsel to address the court on the issue of jurisdiction before hearing the substantive motion.

The judge said though he was ready to hear Sheriff, the lawyer must address the court on the issue of jurisdiction before he proceeded.

He ruled that the application would be heard together with the issue of jurisdiction on the next adjourned date, which was set for April 26. 

On April 19, the electoral umpire declared Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri the winner of the state’s governorship election.

Binani and the APC sued INEC, the PDP, and its candidate, Gov. Fintiri, as the first, second, and third respondents in the motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/510/2023.

Binani had sought a judicial review of INEC’s administrative decision on April 16 in relation to her declaration as the winner of the governorship elections held on March 18 and the supplementary poll on April 15.

In addition, she asked for an order of prohibition and certiorari to stop INEC and its representatives from proceeding with the declaration of the election’s winner while her request for judicial review was being considered.

Binani stated that after the results were collated, INEC declared her the winner of the elections, but the PDP and its candidate, Governor Fintiri, resorted to fighting and causing a public disturbance, which resulted in the beating and manhandling of an INEC staff.

This crisis, she claimed, prompted INEC to cancel the initial declaration, which it had no authority to do because only the election petition tribunal has such authority.