2023: Sokoto PDP Governorship Candidate Heads To Supreme Court

The governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Sokoto State, Mallam Saidu Umar, alongside his party, has filed an appeal against the recent judgment of the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto had recently upheld the election of Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto as the winner of the governorship election in the state. The judgment was delivered on 27 November 2023.

In a notice of appeal submitted to the Supreme Court, a copy made available to our Correspondent in Sokoto on Tuesday, the appellants listed the incumbent governor, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, his deputy, Mohammed Gobir Idris, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as Respondents.

Umar and the PDP also listed nine grounds upon which they are asking the Supreme Court to set aside the concurrent judgments of the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal which affirmed the election of Ahmed Aliyu as governor.

In the appeal filed on their behalf by their team of lawyers led by Mr Sunday Ameh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the appellants claimed that “the judgment of the Court of Appeal is against the weight of evidence”, and as such should be set aside by the apex court.

The three-member panel of the appellate court had in a unanimous judgment last month held that the appellants failed to substantiate allegations of irregularities, noncompliance as well and non-qualification contained in their appeal.

Justice Mbaba Bassi who delivered the lead judgment had held that the tribunal was right in expunging evidence of non-compliance and other alleged irregularities and malpractices because the evidence was presented by incompetent witnesses.

Justice Bassi further held that the failure of the appellants to list and front-load the statements of the witnesses was fatal to their case.