By; IMRANA ABDULLAHI, Kaduna
The Sokoto Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Saturday, dismissed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Sa’idu Umar’s petition challenging the joint victory of Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto and his deputy, Muhammad Idris Gobir.
The petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Sa’idu Umar were challenging the election of Aliyu Sokoto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Idris Gobir over alleged non qualification and electoral fraud during the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state.
However, in a unanimous judgement, the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Haruna Mshelia, said the petitioners were unable to proof the six grounds formulated in the petition.
Mshelia said the petition bordered on the grounds of alleged ineligibility of Aliyu and Gobir to contest, falsification of certificates, variation of names, election fraud and non compliance with electoral guidelines.
Accordingly, the Tribunal Chairman said the petitioners were unable to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt as required by law, saying that 70 per cent of exhibits were out of context because they related to State Assembly elections conducted on the same date.
He said to prove forgery, two different documents of persons needed to be presented while the variation of names issues was a settled supreme court provisions.
” Three subpoena witnesses were not tenable as they were not makers of the documents from the alleged primary school while other 28 polling units agenda testified could not produced identify themselves along with thier roles”, he also pointed out.
In the same vein, the Tribunal Chairman said the alleged 138 polling units fraud were not adduced to indicate substantial non compliance of the elections marred the election outcome.
He further said that the tribunal dismissed all the preliminary objections on competency to institute the case by the Respondents as the petitioners duly linked the grounds in the petition.
Mshelia, however, dismissed the petition for lack of merit and failure of petitioners to prove the allegations.
