The announcement of the final result for the Fufore local government that will eventually determine the 2023 Governor elect in Adamawa state has been suspended amid rancour.
Earlier, the INEC Commissioner for the state gave some few hours break, to resume at 10pm for continuation of the collation of the election results from the remaining 3 of the 21 local governments of the state; Song, Michika and Fufore.
Having resumed, the INEC Commissioner discovered conflicting election results from different sources in one of the local governments, hence called for the adjournment of the announcements to be able to put the records straight.
The members of the PDP, the ruling party in the state, led by Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, whom the situation referred to as Orubebe and Dino Melaye boldly rejected the call, clamoured that the announcement of the results must continue, claiming that they could be shortchanged with the suspension of the exercise.
The results for Song and Michika local governments were eventually read before the REC surreptitiously withdrew himself from the collation centre, later to be joined by the security chiefs, to the distaste of the party representative, more especially, the PDP
INEC pointed out that there should be a reconciliation of the conflicting results for the Fufore local government governorship election. The one earlier submitted, which was uploaded to the INEC Portal and the other signed only by the PDP agent alone, which the party members insisted must be factored in to replace the one submitted earlier.
The former, when added to the results from the 20 local governments of the state as presented, would give victory to the APC governorship candidate, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, a.k.a Binani and the latter would favour the PDP’s governorship candidate, Rt Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
From the INEC portal, as uploaded, the results for the Fufore local government can show that APC polled 37,752 while PDP scored 7,568.
Reacting to the development, Dr Hong accused the REC for Adamawa of being in romance with the opposition APC whose governorship candidate has gained favours at the national level that is about being translated to superimposition.
In a telephone interview, a member of the media team for the Binani campaign council said “it’s natural with any defeat where the vanquished failed to be faithful to fate as we see in the case of Orubebe in 2015 and of recent Dino Melaye, when they should have registered their grievances before the law than backing it up with barking.
“Isn’t it fictitious the figures presented as results, especially for Madagali and Michika local governments? Let’s be honest, where’s the population of the electorate there?
“The election results for the Fufore, not the one manufactured and singularly signed by the PDP agent, is genuine, it is that which we as a party can accept, unless otherwise DPD wants us to go for a fresh governorship election in the state where all eyes of the electoral umpire, the security agencies and every stakeholder will be focused on the election.
“We don’t want to preempt. We’re however law-abiding. We’re waiting to be invited for the continuation of the announcement of results by the INEC that will define our victory”.
The teeming supporters in Yola, Ganye Mubi and Fufore among other local government areas who projected victory for Binani, the would be first female Governor in the country, have since started jubilating and supplicating, thanking God for the victory.