The Appeal Court sitting in Sokoto Friday affirmed the election of Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto state as duly elected.
The four-man panel in a unanimous decision upheld Tambuwal’s election after dismissing the Appeal filed by the appellant and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu, for “lacking in merit.”
Justice Hussein Mukhtar, in his ruling, held that the judgement of the lower tribunal was in order that the petitioners had failed to establish their claims to non-compliance with the Electoral Act and the issue of over voting.
Aliyu was challenging the tribunal judgement that affirmed the election of Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The governorship election which held on March 9 was declared inconclusive following 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, which led to the victory of Tambuwal who won with a slim margin of 342 votes.
The governorship election tribunal had, on October 2, in Abuja, affirmed the election of Tambuwal.
The three-man tribunal led by Justice Abbas Bawale dismissed the petition of the APC and its governorship candidate, Aliyu, for lacking in merit.
His reaction
Reacting after the judgement, Tambuwal said he dedicated the victory to the Almighty God and appealed to opposition political parties to join hands with him in building the state.
He said, “We thank the people of Sokoto state for their prayers and support toward our victory from the day we aspired for the seat of leadership. I once again dedicate the victory to Almighty and urge all of our supporters to continue to pray for the peace, progress and prosperity of our state.
“As such we need each and every one of us to be on the same page, working together as a family in building the Sokoto state of our dream,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “This is in order to ensure that we joined hands together to continue to build Sokoto state. I, therefore, appeal to my brothers and sisters in the other political parties, most especially APC, to come and join us in this project.”
Ganduje’s too
Similarly, the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna Friday affirmed the re-election of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano state.
The five-man panel of Appeal Court Judges led by Justice Tijjani Abubakar unanimously ruled that the appeal filed by Abba Kabiru Yusuf and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lacked merit.
They, therefore, dismissed the appeal in its entirety and affirmed that Governor Ganduje was elected by the majority of Kano voters.
Meanwhile, counsel to the appellants, the PDP and Abba Kabiru Yusuf, Bashir Yusuf Muhammad said they “will appeal the judgement.”
According to him, the reasons for the decisions arrived in the judgement have not been given.
“We will get the full judgement to know the basis of the judgement before proceeding to the Supreme Court,” he said.
