The Election Petition Tribunal in Sokoto state on Wednesday, October 25, affirmed Aminu Tambuwal as the winner of the Sokoto South Senatorial election.
Justice Denis Echesi led a three-man tribunal panel in its unanimous ruling dismissed the petition of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its candidate, Abdullahi Danbaba Danbuwa.
The Tribunal said the petitioners, APC, and its candidate failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt and awarded a fine of N200,000 to be paid to each of the respondents by the petitioners.
Speaking shortly after the tribunal verdict, Suleiman Usman SAN, Counsel to Tambuwal, said the tribunal gave a lengthy decision in which all issues that were canvassed and ventilated were examined, abreast and evaluated.
He said,
“At the end of the day, the tribunal found the evidence of the petitioners as unreliable, having been contradicted and most of which was hearsay including the documents tendered.
“The tribunal found the petition unproven and confirmed and affirmed the election of Sen. Tambuwal as duly elected Senator in the National Assembly.”
Chris Ndeoyiro, Counsel to the petitioners, said they would wait for the copy of the tribunal judgement to review its content and take the next line of action.
He said,
“The judgement itself is quite ominous over the same way the tribunal dismissed the petition.
“However, there are quite some areas where we are not satisfied with the judgement read in the book of the tribunal.
“But I cannot say any other thing. The tribunal will make available the copy of the judgement latest tomorrow, so when we look into it and review it, we take the next line of action.”