The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in the last governorship election in Sokoto state, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, has again approached the Court of Appeal to upturn the judgment delivered by the tribunal.
Blueprint reports that some weeks ago, the Sokoto state Election Petition Tribunal had in its judgment pronounced that the petition filed by Sokoto lacked merit.
The tribunal led by Justice Abass Abdullahi, had in October 2, 2019 dismissed Sokoto’s petition and declared Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.
But not satisfied with the judgment, the petitioner has now approached the Court of Appeal, through his counsel, Dr. Alex Iziyon, SAN, to challenge the tribunal decision.
In the notice of appeal filed at the Court of Appeal, Sokoto Division, the appellant, raised 31 grounds of appeal.
While justifying the grounds for their appeal, Izinyon, the appellant’s counsel, said the Learned Judges of the Trial Tribunal erred in Law when they held thus:
“It is therefore without gainsaying that there is no evident (sic) of payment for certification of exhibits PI – P14 before the Tribunal, as the purported payment receipts have not demonstrated which certification they cover.”
According to Izinyon, the learned Judges also erred in Law when they held, “It is observed that while some of the said certifications bear the dates of 20/3/2019; 28/3/2019; 29/3/2019; 1/4/2019; 4/4/2019; 1/6/2019; and 24/6/2019, while some other exhibits like P14 and P15 have no certification on them.
He argued further that wrongful rejection of the exhibits led to a miscarriage of justice.
He said: “In particular the error in ground two that all that is required to evidence or establish proper certification of public documents is the name and the official title of the public officer that certified such a public document and nothing more under law by virtue of Section 104(2) of the Evidence Act.
Izinyon added that court of law or tribunal is bound strictly to make pronouncement on all issues raised before it by parties, saying that the Trial Tribunal was wrong to have dismissed the Appellants Petition.
While praying for an order allowing the appeal and another order setting aside the Judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, Izinyon, maintained that the Appellant is entitled to the reliefs sought in the Petition having proved on the balance of probabilities and preponderance of evidence the petition.