By Musa Ubandawaki Sokoto

Sokoto Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Saturday dismissed petition against Sokoto Governor Ahmed Aliyu and his Deputy Idris Mohammed Gobir for lack of substance.

The petition filed by Sa’idu Umar the Gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is challenging the eligibility of the governor and his deputy over lack of qualification to contest March 18th 2023 Election.

Umar the petitioner is also challenging Governor Aliyu and his deputy for electoral fraud during the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Sokoto state.

The unanimous judgement delivered by the tribunal chairman, Justice Haruna Mshelia, established that the petitioners were unable to prove beyond reasonable grounds, the allegations they formulated in the petition.

The allegations bordered on ineligibility for Aliyu and Gobir to contest, falsification of certificates, variation of names, election frauds and non compliance with electoral guidelines stated by the tribunal.

“The Petitioners were unable to prove the allegations beyond reasonable double as required by law as 70 percent of of exhibits were out of context because they relates to State Assembly elections conducted on the same dates.”

“To prove forgery, two different documents of persons needed to be presented while the variation of names issues was a settled supreme court provisions.

The three subpoene witnesses tendered before the tribunal were not tenable as they were not makers of the documents from the alleged primary school.

Other 28 polling units agents that testified could not produce their identities along with their roles.

The tribunal chairman said the alleged 138 polling units frauds were not adduced to indicate substantial non compliance of the elections have marred the election outcome.

Mshelia stated that the tribunal dismissed all the preliminary objections on competency to institute the case by the respondents as the petitioners duly linked to the grounds in the petition.