The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal by Ahmed Aliyu challenging the election of Governor Aminu Tambuwal in the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Sokoto State.
In a unanimous judgment by a five-member panel led by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, the apex court held that Aliyu failed to prove his claims against the election.
In the lead judgement, read by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the court held that the evidence presented by Aliyu had no evidential and probative value having not been properly certified at the tribunal.
Recall that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad was absent when the Supreme Court commenced its judgement in the governorship appeal on Kano State.
In his place, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta led the five-member panel of justices.
Counsel to the APC candidate in the election, Alex Izinyon (SAN) asked the Supreme Court to nullify the election of Tambuwal because he had not led evidence to justify the 342 votes which separates him from the APC candidate.
Aliyu polled 511,661 votes against 512,002 votes by Tambuwal after conclusion of collation in the rerun.
But lawyers to PDP and Tambuwal, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) and Muyiwa Akinboro (SAN) asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal. They argued that they have met the standard of proof that they won the election.
“The Supreme Court cannot tamper with the concurrent judgments of the lower courts if it is not in any way perverse or proved to be wrong,” Akinboro said.