Wild celebrations, Tuesday evening, heralded the long awaited victory for Adamawa State governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, after the conclusion of the much supplementary governorship election in the state.
Fintiri’s day of victory was expected to have been on Sunday, April 16, when collation was expected to have been concluded, but midway into the collation, the now suspended State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Ari, announced candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Sen Aishatu Ahmed Binani as the winner.
The declaration was immediately disowned by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which suspended Ari and also suspended collation, till it was resumed and concluded in the early evening of Tuesday.
“After so many unimaginable attempts to steal our mandate, we have it at last,” a supporter of Fintiri, Joe Yakubu, said.
Also speaking immediately after the declaration of Fintiri, the state collation officer of the PDP, Dr Idi Hong, said the Fintiri camp was happy that INEC had salvaged itself by finally proving that it was not part of the act that Hudu Ari put up by earlier by declaring a winner of an election process that had not been concluded.
Giving his acceptance speech later Tuesday evening at the Government House in Yola, Governor Fintiri said his victory was victory for Adamawa people and for democracy.
He thanked the people for giving him the mandate, promising that he would serve them with diligence.
Celebration by Fintiri supporters was carried right into the otherwise much protected Government House, in some streets of Yola, and in the Houses of many top members of the inner circles of the governor.
Loud speakers were mounted in many of those places, with pro-Fintiri music blaring out his praises.
The big and the mighty and otherwise less prominent members of society who did not look like they had anything to benefit directly from Fintiri’s victory were involved in the celebration.
Significantly, everything went on smoothly, at least around the Yola capital metropolis.
Calls put through to some leaders in the Binani camp yielded little result, as only the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Abdullahi Mohammed responded.
He, however, made no definite remark, promising instead that the party executives would meet later and issue a response to the new development.
