The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal brought before it by the Social Democratic Party –SDP, and its governorship candidate, Dr Umar Ardo opposing the declaration of Ahmadu Fintiri as the Adamawa State governor.
The appeal numbered SC/CV/1219/2023 was dismissed by the apex court for a lack of merit.
SDP and its candidate had gotten 6,000 votes and were opposing the declaration of Fintiri and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who got more than 430,000 votes at the March 18, 2023 election.
The grouse of the SDP and Ardo was that the election was not organised in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
In the course of Wednesday’s proceedings, the counsel to the appellants, Sylvester Imhanobe, was taken up to corroborate how the election was organised without following the Electoral Act.
Upon finding out the suggestion of the apex court, the appellants withdrew their appeal, having been found discreditable.
Justice John Inyang Okoro, who led a 5-man panel of Justices of the Court, threw out the appeal without charging the appellants.
Subsequently, the apex court affirmed the election of Fintiri as being legitimately elected and lawfully declared as the Governor of Adamawa State.
Ardo and his party had originally filed a petition at the Adamawa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal after Fintiri, the candidate of PDP, was declared the winner of the poll.