The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the appeal of the All Progressive Congress and its candidate, Ahmed Aliyu, challenging Aminu Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as governor of Sokoto State.
The seven-member of the apex court , in a unanimous judgment on Monday, dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
Justice Uwani Abba-aji read the judgment.
Justice Abba-aji held that the appellant (Aliyu) failed to give any credible evidence to prove his petition against the outcome of the governorship election.
The court noted that Aliyu produced 12 witnesses before the tribunal, out of which 11 made their statements in Hausa language while the English version was tendered in evidence.
Justice Abba-aji held that the appellant failed to tender the original version of the statements in evidence.
The court further held that Aliyu also failed to produce the translator to confirm the authenticity or otherwise of the 11 statements.
They held that the appellant was unable to prove that the election was invalid by virtue of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
In dismissing the appeal, the apex court held that Aliyu failed to discharge the onus placed on him by the law, and accordingly dismissed the appeal.
Earlier decisions
Aliyu had challenged the judgments of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and that of the Appeal Court that all dismissed his petitions.
The Tribunal and Appeal Court had dismissed APC’s petition for lacking in merits on October 2 and November 22, 2019, respectively.
The Court of Appeal in Sokoto on November 22, upheld the re-election of Tambuwal as the governor.
Delivering judgment, Justice Hussein Mukhtar held that the judgment of the lower tribunal was in order and that the petitioners failed to establish their claims to non-compliance with the Electoral Act and the issue of over-voting.
Aliyu challenged the tribunal judgement that affirmed the election of Mr Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The governorship election held on March 9 was declared inconclusive following the cancellation of 75,403 votes which were higher than the 3,413 votes margin between the leading candidates.
The re-run was then conducted on March 23 and led to the victory of Tambuwal who won with a slim margin of 342 votes.