Tambuwal vs Aliyu: What happened at Tribunal on Thursday

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship candidate, Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu, has prayed the Election Petition Tribunal in Sokoto State to quash the order it granted the PDP to invite forensic experts to inspect election materials used in the March 9 and March 22 election.

NAN reports that the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Abbas Bawale, on April 25, granted Gov. Aminu Tambuwal and the PDP permission to invite forensic experts to inspect the materials.

At the resumed sitting on Thursday, lead Counsel to Aliyu and APC, Chief Jacob Ochidi, filed a motion praying the Tribunal to quash some parts of the order, especially the use of forensic experts.

“As Petitioners/Applicants, we intend to file a counter affidavit and written addresses on the counter affidavit and written address and constitutionally, we have three days to do so, from the date of the service of the counter affidavit on us.

Counsel to Tambuwal, D. G. Dung, Counsel to PDP, Mr Jibril Uwadiae and Bunyanba Lawal, Counsel to INEC did not object to the prayer for an adjournment in order to respond to the counter affidavit.

Justice Bawale adjourned the case to May 13, for continuation of pre-hearing session.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the main governorship election held on March 9 was declared inconclusive following cancellation of 75, 403 votes which were higher than the 3, 413 votes margin between the leading candidates.

The re-run was conducted on March 23, and Tambuwal won with a slim margin of 342 votes.

Unsatisfied with the outcome, Aliyu approached the tribunal challenging the return of Tambuwal as the governor-elect, on the grounds that the election was marred with irregularities.

#TambuwalvsAliyu #tribunal