Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto
The National Assembly election Petition tribunal sitting in Sokoto on Wednesday affirmed the election of former governor of the state, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, as duly elected senator, representing Sokoto South Senatorial district.
The three-man panel of the Tribunal led by Justice Denis Madi Echesi in its ruling dismissed the petition of the All Progressive Congress and it’s candidate, Senator Ibrahim Danbaba, challenging the victory of the PDP and its candidate.
The Tribunal said the petitioner failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. It further awarded cost of N200,000 to the respondents – Tambuwal and PDP respectively.
Reacting to the Tribunal judgement, Barrister Chris Kelechi, one of the legal team representing the petitioner, Ibrahim Danbaba, said his team will study the judgement and consult his client before taking further action.
“The Tribunal has promised to hand over the copy of the judgement tomorrow, after which we will sit to study the judgement before going for appeal” he said.
In his reaction, Suleiman Usman (SAN) who stands for Senator Aminu Tambuwal, commended the judgement
The Tribunal has given a lengthy judgement in which the cases were evaluated and the Tribunal in its ruling said the evidence of the petitioners were not reliable, contradictory, including the evidence that were tendered, some of them were not demonstrated.
“They further said some of their evidences were contradictory and found the petitions unproven”.
He said the Tribunal therefore affirmed the election of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as the duly elected Senator representing Sokoto South senatorial district.
Reacting to the judgement, the publicity secretary of PDP in the state Hassan Sahabi Sanyiinnawal hailed the judgement, stressing that the petitioner should join hands with Tambuwal for the development of the district rather than appealing the judgement.
Sanyiinnawal explained that the opposition had been bragging that they will retire Tambuwal from politics, saying the landmark judgement today proved that nobody can take the position of God.
