The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Sokoto, Sokoto State,
on Thursday granted an ex parte order to on a request to allow the All
Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Ahmed Aliyu, to
inspect the materials used for the governorship and supplementary
governorship elections in Sokoto State. The materials include forms,
ballot papers, result sheets and card reader machines, among others.
After the sitting of the Tribunal, the Lead Counsel, Alex Izinyon SAN,
and a member of the APC Legal team in the state, Bashir Mu’azu Jodi, said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would be served the order of the court, while a date will be fixed for them to inspect the materials and where necessary take the certified true copies of some of the documents for exhibits at the tribunal.
APC and its governorship candidate in Sokoto, Ahmed Aliyu, filed the
petition at the 2019 Governorship Elections Petitions Tribunal,
challenging the victory of Governor Aminu Tambuwal of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).
The APC Counsel said the party and its candidate have over 40
witnesses to present at the Court when the hearing of the case begins.
The lead counsel is optimistic that there are many cogent grounds upon
which the election of Aminu Tambuwal is being challenged. He said that
the March 9, 2019, governorship election and the March 23 rerun
election did not comply substantially to the provisions of the
Electoral Act, 2010, as amended.
The plaintiff counsel said that the respondents will later be served;
noting that they have two weeks to reply, thereafter, the court will
fix a date for hearing.