The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Wednesday, prayed the Supreme Court to affirm its candidate, Saidu Umar, as the valid winner of the governorship election that held in Sokoto State on March 18, 2023.
The party and its candidate urged the apex court to set aside the concurrent judgements of the Court of Appeal and the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the case they filed to challenge the declaration of Ahmad Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the gubernatorial contest.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had announced that Governor Aliyu polled a total of 453,661 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sa’idu Umar of the PDP who polled 404,632 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Umar and the PDP approached the tribunal, alleging that Aliyu and his deputy, Idris Gobir, were not eligible to contest the gubernatorial poll.
The petitioners contended that governor Idris and his deputy did not secure majority of valid votes that were cast at the election to be declared winners by INEC.
They further alleged that the election was not only marred by irregularities, but was also not conducted in substantial complaince with 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 September 30, 2023, dismissed the petition as lacking in merit.
The Justice Haruna Mshelia-led tribunal held that the petitioners were unable to prove any of the allegation they raised in the petition.
It held that evidence of most of the witnesses that testified for the PDP and its candidate were 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 in nature, 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 of exhibits the petitioners adduced before it, were out of context ad they relate to the State House of Assembly elections that were conducted on the same date the governorship poll held.
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on November 27, 2023, upheld the decision of the tribunal.
The appellate court panel held that most of the proof of evidence the petitioners produced in support of their case, were legally inadmissible.
It held 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.
Not happy with the judgement, the PDP and its candidate brought the case before the Supreme Court which heard the matter on Wednesday and reserved its judgement after all the parties adopted their briefs of argument.
The Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun led five-member panel said it would communicate the judgement date to the parties.
