Courts lack the power to stop an election; INEC has the power to review any wrong declaration (Sections 64, 65, and 84(15) of the Electoral Act).
The All Progressive Congress’s governor candidate in Adamawa’s adviser completely misinformed her about her decision to go to court in response to Hudu’s erroneous declaration declaring her the election’s winner.
Without conceding, even if the returning officer of INEC declares Binani the winner of the election, INEC has power, according to the federal laws guiding it, to review any decision carried out without following due process of the law. (65.—(1) The decision of the returning officer shall be final on any question.
arising from or relating to—
(a) unmarked ballot paper ;
(b) rejected ballot paper ; and
(c) declaration of scores of candidates and the return of a candidate :
Provided that the Commission shall have the power within seven days to
review the declaration and return where the Commission determines that the
said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or was made contrary to
the provisions of the law, regulations, and guidelines, and the manual for the election.
(2) A decision of the returning officer under subsection (1) may be
reviewed by an election tribunal or court of competent jurisdiction in an election
petition proceedings under this Act.) in this context, if the returning officer jumps any of the guiding laws of the election to declare any candidate the winner of any election, in this regard, Binani has not been declared the winner yet, but she still wants to build something on nothing.
Second, the Electoral Act of 2022 prohibits INEC from stopping any election in regard to any court ordet. So wr (see Section 84(15) of the Electoral Act as amended; (15) Nothing in this section shall empower the Courts to stop the holding of primaries or general elections under this Act pending the determination of a suit this section, INEC is not bound to stop her process in Adamawa in honour of any court, as the electoral law envisages politicians may rush to court to halt any election. With this point of law, no judicial precedent supports her action in rushing to court to stop INEC from completing the collation of the remaining local governments in Adamawa.