The Supreme Court yesterday reserved judgement on an appeal seeking to unseat Governor Ahmad Aliyu, of Sokoto State, and Governor Dr. Kefas Agbu, of Taraba State.
The 5-member panel of Justices of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, reserved judgement in the two appeals for a date that would be announced to parties in the matter, after briefs filed were adopted by parties.
While Sunday Ameh (SAN), the lead counsel to the appellants, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Sa’idu Umar, prayed to the court to allow the appeal and grant all the reliefs sought, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), representing Governor Ahmad Aliyu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking merit.
Olanipekun also prayed the court to uphold the concurrent judgements of the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal which affirmed the election of Aliyu as Sokoto State governor.
Other respondents in the appeal had, while adopting their briefs, prayed the court to dismiss the appeal challenging the declaration of Aliyu as the bona-fide winner of the March 18 governorship election that was held in the State.
Recall that the Court of Appeal had, in a unanimous judgement delivered last year, affirmed the election of Governor Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto State on the ground that it found no reason to disturb the verdict of the Tribunal, which had earlier validated Gov. 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 governorship election.
The petitioners contended that Governor Idris and his deputy did not secure the 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 not only marred by irregularities but was also not conducted in substantial compliance with the 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 three-man panel tribunal, in a judgement it delivered on Sept. 30, dismissed the petition for lacking merit.
The Justice Haruna Mshelia-led tribunal held that the petitioners were unable to prove any of the allegations they raised in the petition, saying that the evidence of most of the witnesses who testified for the PDP and its candidate was 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, 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 the exhibits the petitioners adduced before it was out of context as they relate to the State House of Assembly elections that were conducted on the same date the governorship poll was held.
Consequently, it dismissed the petition and affirmed the outcome of the election. While upholding the decision of the tribunal, the appellate court held that most of the evidence that the petitioners produced in support of their case was legally inadmissible, and 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.
