Sokoto State’s governor, Ahmad Aliyu, has requested the Supreme Court to reject the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) challenge to his election, which Sa’adu Umar filed.
The governor maintained that the two appellants’ suit against him lacks validity and substance.
Wole Olanipekun SAN, the governor’s lawyer, contended at Wednesday’s appeal hearing before the Supreme Court that the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal were entirely correct in their findings, conclusions, and rejection of the petition due to its lack of substance.
Olanipekun argued that the appeal might be dismissed because the claims made against his client’s election had not been proven in a way that is needed by law.
In requesting the dismissal of the appeal, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) took Olanipekun’s stance.
But PDP and Umar, the appellants, begged the court to find merit in the appeal, reverse the rulings and conclusions of the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which had rejected the petition last year.
Appealing clients’ lead counsel, Sunday Ibrahim Ameh SAN, argued that their petition had merit and should be permitted.
In particular, PDP and Umar asked the Supreme Court to overturn INEC’s announcement that APC and Aliyu were the legitimate winners of the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election.
The five-judge panel headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun did not reach a decision on the case until they heard arguments from the attorneys.
Kekere-Ekun stated that the parties will be notified of the judgment delivery date once it is prepared.
Last year, on November 27, the election of Ahmad Aliyu as Governor of Sokoto State was validated by the Abuja Court of Appeal.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its gubernatorial candidate, Saidu Umar, had their appeal against Aliyu’s election triumph rejected by a three-judge panel of the court of appeals.
In a unanimous decision, the panel concluded that the tribunal’s decision to uphold the governor’s victory should be upheld.
With 453,661 votes against Umar’s 404,632, the APC’s Aliyu was proclaimed the winner of the governorship race.
Umar, on the other hand, claimed that Idris Gobir, the governor’s deputy, and the governor himself had falsified their electoral credentials to get into the race.
Recall that on September 30, a three-judge panel of the Election Petition Tribunal, presided over by Justice Haruna Msheila, unanimously rejected the petition filed by the PDP and its candidate for governor in the most recent Sokoto State election.
The tribunal determined that the petitioners were unable to provide sufficient evidence to support the six claims made in their combined petition.
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