Appeal court upholds Tambuwal’s election

The appeal court sitting in Sokoto has upheld the election of Aminu Tambuwal as governor of the state. 

A four-man panel in a unanimous decision upheld Tambuwal’s election after dismissing the appeal filed by Ahmed Aliyu, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), for lacking merit.

In October, the governorship election tribunal affirmed the victory of Tambuwal, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, but Aliyu appealed against the judgement.

The tribunal led by Abbas Bawale, dismissed the petition of  Aliyu for lacking merit.

Dissatisfied with the verdict, Aliyu filed a notice of appeal challenging the judgement of the lower court.

In his verdict on Friday, Hussein Mukhtar, the presiding judge, held that the judgement of the tribunal was in order and that the petitioner failed to establish his claims of non-compliance with the electoral act in the election.

The governorship election in Sokoto, which was held on March 9, was declared inconclusive following the cancellation of 75, 403 votes that were higher than the 3, 413 votes margin between the leading candidates.

A run-off election was then conducted on March 23 with Tambuwal winning by a slim margin of 342 votes.