By Musa Na Allah Sokoto
The Sokoto Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Saturday dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) petition and affirmed Sokoto Governor Ahmed Aliyu and his Deputy Idris Mohammed Gobir as duly elected.
The petition filed by Sa’idu Umar the Gubernatorial candidate of the PDP is challenging the eligibility of the Governor and his Deputy for lack of qualification to contest the 18 March 2023 Election.
Umar the Petitioner is also challenging Governor Aliyu and his Deputy for electoral fraud during the 18 March 2023 governorship election in Sokoto state.
The unanimous judgement delivered by the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Haruna Mshelia, said the Petitioners were unable to prove beyond reasonable grounds, the allegations they formulated in the petition.
The allegations bordered on alleged ineligibility for Aliyu and Gobir to contest, falsification of certificates, variation of names, election frauds, and noncompliance with electoral guidelines, stated by the Tribunal.
“The Petitioners were unable to prove the allegations beyond reasonable double as required by law as 70 percent of exhibits were out of context because they relate to State Assembly elections conducted on the same dates”.
“To prove forgery, two different documents of persons needed to be presented while the variation of names issues was a settled Supreme Court provision.
The three subpoena witnesses tenders before the tribúnal were not tenable as they were not makers of the documents from the alleged primary school, while the other 28 polling units agenda testified could not produce identify or testify themselves along with their roles.
The Tribunal Chairman said the alleged 138 polling units frauds were not adduced to indicate substantial noncompliance of the elections have marred the election outcome.
Mshelia stated that the tribunal was to dismiss all the preliminary objections on competency to institute the case by the Respondents as the petitioners duly linked the grounds in the petition.
