S’court dismisses PDP’s appeal, affirms Ahmad Aliyu as Sokoto governor

The supreme court has affirmed the election of Ahmad Aliyu as governor of Sokoto state.

Tijjani Abubakar who led a five-member panel of the apex court, held that the lower court was right to have dismissed the appeal filed by Sai’du Umar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Consequently, the appeal was dismissed for lacking merit.

Aliyu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the poll, was declared winner of the governorship election with 453,661 votes to defeat Umar who secured 404,632 votes.

However, Umar alleged that the governor and Idris Gobir, his running mate, forged the certificates they presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The petitioners also alleged electoral fraud during the poll.

The tribunal in its judgment said the petitioners were unable to prove the six grounds contained in their petition.

While upholding the decision of the tribunal, the appellate court in November, held that most of the evidence that the petitioners tendered were legally inadmissible.