Sophia Michaels
Aminu Tambuwal
The election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, Senator Aminu Tambuwal representing Sokoto South has been affirmed by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal.
Tambuwal, a two-term ex-governor of Sokoto State, won the national assembly poll with a total number of 100,860 votes.
With a vote margin of 4,976, he defeated his closest rival, Abdullahi Danbaba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored 95,884 votes.
Not satisfied with the result, Danbaba filed a petition challenging the victory of Tambuwal, praying that the Tribunal declare the election inconclusive for not complying substantially with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Danbaba had also asked the Tribunal to order a re-election in 28 polling units where he alleged election did not hold during the February and April substantive and supplementary polls.
In a unanimous judgment, the three-man panel of the Tribunal, led by Justice Denis Madi Echesi, dismissed the petition of Danbaba for lacking in merit, presenting documents and evidence that were not reliable.
The Tribunal also awarded the cost of N200,000 each to the first and second respondents, the PDP and Tambuwal.
Reacting to the Tribunal judgement, Barrister Chris Kelechi, one of the legal team members representing Danbaba, said his team would study the judgement very well before going for an appeal.
In his reaction, Suleiman Usman (SAN), who stands for Senator Tambuwal, commended the judgement, stressing that some of their evidences presented by the petitioner were contradictory and found the petitions unproven”
He said the Tribunal therefore affirmed the election of Tambuwal as the duly elected Senator representing the Sokoto South senatorial district.
