26th March, 2019
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has fixed Thursday for the governorship supplementary election in Adamawa State.
The commission, in a statement on its Twitter handle on Tuesday said it decided to hold the supplementary election in Adamawa following the discharge of the injunction which stopped the supplementary election in the state earlier.
The Adamawa State High Court had on Tuesday ordered INEC to conduct supplementary governorship election in Adamawa State.
he same court had earlier stopped INEC from conducting the supplementary election in the state.
Justice Abdulazeez Waziri of High Court 4, in his ruling said the court had the jurisdiction to continue with the case that gave rise to the order.
The candidate of the Movement for Restoration and Defense of Democracy (MRDD), Rev Eric Theman, had sued INEC immediately after the March 9 governorship election in the state, saying he was deprived of his right to be voted for as the logo of his party was not on the ballot paper for the election.
He had asked for an order cancelling the election and stopping the supplementary election which INEC fixed for March 26 after it declared the election inconclusive because the margin of lead between the two leading candidates was lower than cancelled votes. The court granted the injunction stopping the conduct of the supplementary election and fixed Tuesday for determination of its jurisdiction over the case, among other things, the Nation reports.
At Tuesday’s sitting, Waziri lifted the order against the supplementary election but fixed Wednesday, March 27 to hear the originating motion by MRDD, asking the court to nullify the governorship election conducted on March 9 on the grounds of the logo of his party not being on the ballot paper for the election.
However, INEC in a statement said “following the discharge of the injunction which stopped the governorship supplementary election in Adamawa State in the case filed by the MRDD, INEC will now conduct the election on Thursday, 28th March, 2019 from 8.00am to 2.00pm in 29 registration areas, 44 Polling Units across 14 LGAs with a total number of 40,988 registered voters.”
Update on Adamawa Governorship Supplementary Election pic.twitter.com/4rSzF5sahB
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) March 26, 2019