22nd June, 2023
By Habibu Harisu
Sa’idu Umar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate in the March 18 governorship candidate has lined up 31 witnesses to nullify the victory of Gov. Ahmad Aliyu of APC and his Deputy, Idris Gobir in the election.
Umar said this at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Sokoto on Thursday.
The witnesses included Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Head Teacher of Model Primary School, Sabon Birni, Acting Head of ICT of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Sokoto, Abubakar Usman and PDP polling agents during the election.
In a general remark at the resumed sitting on Thursday, the tribunal’s Chairman, Justice Haruna Mshelia, urged people to respect public interests and the rule of law.
Mshelia made the remark while responding to PDP Lead Counsel, Sunday Ameh SAN, who prayed the tribunal to take judicial notice of alleged threat to lives of some of those subpoenaed as petitioners’ witnesses.
The judge said Sokoto State was an organised society and citizens known with respect to values.
Earlier, Ameh told the tribunal that some of the subpoenaed witnesses arranged to testify before the tribunal were allegedly being threatened which might jeopardise the processes.
The lead Respondents’ Counsel, Chief Jecob Ochidi SAN, argued that such statements should be submitted in writing while the APC lead counsel, Hassan Liman SAN, said APC was a law-abiding party that sought the governorship position in last four years.
At today’s sitting, Ameh presented the Head of Operations of INEC Sokoto, Abdulmumini Usman, as a witness.
He said he could not produce the complete requested documents in evidence.
Ameh prayed to the court for more days to enable the witness to produce the required documents.
After series of presentations by Ochidi and INEC lead counsel, AbdulAziz Sani SAN, the tribunal adjourned the case to July 11, to continue hearing.
In the petition, Umar and PDP alleged that the election was flawed, arguing that it did not comply with electoral laws.
The petitioner argued that at the time of the election, respondents were not qualified to contest the election and prayed that by virtue of that, votes were wrongfully attributed to the respondents.
He said such votes, therefore, became unlawful or wasted, null and void.
He further prayed to the tribunal to mandate INEC to issue a new Certificate of Return to the Petitioner as the duly elected governor of Sokoto State, having scored the majority of the lawful votes cast or order for another election, excluding the respondents. (NAN)