Supreme court reserves judgment in Sokoto governorship dispute

The supreme court has reserved judgment in the appeal challenging the election of Ahmad Aliyu as governor of Sokoto state.

All parties in the appeal adopted their arguments at the hearing session on Wednesday.

A five-member panel of justices, headed by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, said a date for judgment will be communicated to parties in the suit.

Aliyu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared winner of the governorship election with 453,661 votes to defeat Sai’du Umar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who secured 404,632 votes.

But Umar alleged that the governor and his deputy Idris Gobir, 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.