Tribunal: Ganduje, Abba, Tambuwal, Aliyu know fate tomorrow
The governorship election petition tribunals have fixed tomorrow, Wednesday, for the delivery of judgements on the Kano and Sokoto states governorship tussles, Daily Trust reports.
In Kano, the tribunal has slated tomorrow for judgment in a petition filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Abba Kabir Yusuf, challenging the victory of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
Counsel to APC, Barr. Christopher Oshomegia and that of PDP, Barr. Bashir Yusuf, as well as that of Governor Ganduje, Barr. M. A. Lawan, have confirmed to Daily Trust that the date was communicated to the parties on Monday by the tribunal.
The three-man tribunal, led by Justice Halima S. Muhammad, had on September 18, 2019 reserved judgment, saying it would communicate the date for the delivery of judgement to the parties involved.
Dissatisfied with the declaration of Ganduje as the winner of the March 23 governorship election in Kano, the PDP and Abba filed a petition at the tribunal.
PDP and its governorship candidate were dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, saying it was marred by violence and that, their members were prevented from casting their votes, an allegation both INEC and APC said was baseless.
The petitioners requested the tribunal to cancel the March 23 election and revert to the March 9 election which was declared inconclusive by INEC. They claimed that their candidate won the March 9 election, hence he should be declared winner.
On its part, INEC the 1st respondent, had called three witnesses; Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the 2nd respondent presented four witnesses; while APC, the 3rd respondent called only one witness, arguing that the petitioners did not present any case that would warrant calling more witnesses.
Similarly, the 2019 Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Sokoto has fixed tomorrow, October 2 for its judgement.
Daily Trust reliably gathered that the judgement would be delivered in Abuja. No reason was given on why the judgement would be delivered in Abuja, but it was generally believed that it was due to security threat.
One of the lawyers of the petitioners, Barr. Bashir Jodi confirmed to Daily Trust that the judgement would be delivered tomorrow.
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary of the ruling PDP, Abdullahi Hausawa expressed optimism that the judgement would be delivered in their favour.
“We are confident that by God’s Grace, the judgement will be in our favour,” he said
Hausawa said they were told that the judgement would be delivered in Abuja because of security threat.
The chairman of APC in the state, Isa Sadiq Achida, said the judges have their own reason for taking the judgement to Abuja.
“Our hope is that they will be just and fair in their judgement,” he said.
He called on their supporters and the entire people of Sokoto State to remain law abiding, before and after the judgement.
“We are ready to accept the outcome of the tribunal in good faith and I hope, members of the PDP will do the same because Sokoto is our home, we should not resort to anything that will put our people and state in danger after the judgement,” he said.
Ahmed Aliyu, governorship candidate of APC, and the party, had on April 11, 2019, dragged INEC, Tambuwal and PDP before the tribunal, sitting in Sokoto, challenging the declaration of Tambuwal as winner of the poll.