The Sokoto Governorship Election Petition Tribunal dismissed a petition against Sokoto Governor Ahmed Aliyu and his Deputy Idris Mohammed Gobir on Saturday due to a lack of substance.
The petition filed by Sa’idu Umar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Gubernatorial candidate, challenges the governor and his deputy’s eligibility to run in the March 18th, 2023 election.
Umar the petitioner is also suing Governor Aliyu and his deputy for electoral fraud in the Sokoto state governorship election on March 18, 2023.
The tribunal chairperson, Justice Haruna Mshelia, delivered a unanimous decision establishing that the petitioners were unable to show their assertions in the petition beyond reasonable doubt.
The claims included Aliyu and Gobir’s ineligibility to run for office, forgery of certificates, name variations, election fraud, and failure to follow the tribunal’s electoral norms.
“The Petitioners were unable to prove the allegations beyond reasonable double as required by law as 70 percent of of exhibits were out of context because they relates 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 provisions.
The three subpoena witnesses called before the tribunal were untenable because they did not create the documents from the alleged primary school.
The other 28 polling unit agents who testified could not produce their identities or roles.
The tribunal chairman said the alleged 138 polling units frauds were not adduced to indicate substantial non compliance of the elections have marred the election outcome.
Mshelia stated that the tribunal dismissed all the preliminary objections on competency to institute the case by the respondents as the petitioners duly linked to the grounds in the petition.
