JUST IN: Appeal Court affirms Sokoto Governor’s election victory

The court of Appeal, Abuja division on Monday, affirmed the election victory of the Sokoto State Governor, of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Ahmed Aliyu, in the March 18th Governorship Election in the state.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Sa’idu Umar, in the Governorship polls had filed an Appeal challenging the election victory of Umar.

A three-member panel of justices of the appellate court in a unanimous judgment however dismissed the appeal filed by Umar to challenge the declaration of Aliyu.

The court held that it found no reason to nullify the judgement of the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had earlier upheld governor Aliyu’s election victory.

Umar and the PDP had approached the tribunal, alleging that Aliyu and his deputy, Idris Gobir, were not eligible to contest the gubernatorial poll.

The petitioners contended that governor Idris and his deputy did not secure majority of valid votes that were cast at the election to be declared winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

They alleged that the election was marred by irregularities and not conducted in substantial complaince with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

Aside from alleging that the governor and his deputy submitted forged certificates, with variations of names, to INEC in aid of their qualification to contest the election, the petitioners, added that electoral fraud occurred in 138 polling units in the state.

However, the tribunal panel, in its judgement, dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

The Justice Haruna Mshelia-led tribunal held that the petitioners were unable to prove any of the allegation they raised in the petition.

It held that evidence of most of the witnesses that testified for the PDP and its candidate were incompetent as their statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition as required by law.

The tribunal held that the allegation of forgery, being criminal in nature, ought to have been proved beyond reasonable doubt, a burden it said the petitioners failed to discharge.

More so, the tribunal noted that 70 percent of of exhibits the petitioners adduced before it, were out of context ad they relate to the State House of Assembly elections that were conducted on the same date the governorship poll held.

Consequently, it dismissed the petition and affirmed the outcome of the election.
While upholding the decision of the tribunal on Monday, the appellate court, held that most of the evidence that the petitioners produced in support of their case, were legally inadmissible.

It held that the tribunal was right when it expunged the incompetent exhibits that were either not pleaded or irrelevant to the case that was brought before it.