The Sokoto Governorship Election Petition Tribunal yesterday dismissed the petition filed against Governor Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto State and three others by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sa’idu Umar, in the last election.
Other respondents in the case were the deputy governor of the state, Engineer Idris Mohammed Gobir, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Umar challenged the victory of the governor on six grounds, which involved falsification of certificates, variation of names, election frauds and non compliance with electoral guidelines.
In a unanimous judgment, the 3-member panel led by Justice Haruna Mshelia said Umar and the PDP could not substantially prove their allegations beyond any reasonable doubt.
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“The petitioners were unable to prove the six grounds formulated in the petition.
He affirmed that the deputy governor’s primary school certificate was intact.
On the variation of name, Justice Mshelia stated that Ahmed and Ahmad were all referring to Governor Ahmad Aliyu, citing Supreme Court judgment on a similar case.
On the alleged certificate forgery, the panel averred that to prove forgery, two different documents of persons needed to be presented but the petitioners failed to do so.
Reacting to the judgment, the lead counsel to Umar and PDP, Usman Sule, said they would apply for the copy of the judgment and after studying it, they would decide their next step.
