Sokoto guber primary: Appeal Court upholds Gov. Tambuwal’s election

The Court of Appeal in Abuja Division has upheld the decision of Federal High Court that dismissed the appeal against the conduct of All Progressives Congress (APC) Sokoto State governorship primary election that produced Governor Aminu Tambuwal in December 2014.

In a unanimous judgment on Thursday, the appellate court held that the appeal which emanated from the directive by the Supreme Court for a retrial of the pre-election suit of 2014, lacked merit.
The appellate court subsequently dismissed the appeal with N100,000 costs in favour of the respondents.

The appellants: Umaru Dahiru and Aliyu Sanyinna, who were governorship aspirants in the December 4, 2014 APC governorship primary election in Sokoto had filed the legal action before the Federal High Court Abuja after they lost the primary.

They had alleged in the suit that the conduct of the party primary was not in accordance with the party guidelines as they claimed that there was no accreditation of delegates.

The lower court initially dismissed the suit as an academic exercise after Tambuwal was sworn in as the governor of Sokoto State. Not satisfied, the appellants approached the Supreme Court while the apex court ordered of a retrial on the grounds that there are life issues. But the plaintiffs lost again at the lower court and had appealed against the judgment.

Delivering the lead unanimous judgment, Justice Emmanuel Agi stated that the APC actually accredited 3,569 delegates for the governorship primary and all the contestants for governorship candidate, including the appellants did not dispute the figure .

He also held that the appellants who had alleged that the primary did not comply with the APC guidelines should have prove their assertion before the trial court since according to him, ” section 131 of the evidence Act invested on the appellants to prove their assertion that there was no list of accredited delegates at the primary.”

Justice Agi said that the APC guidelines did not provide specific method of accreditation of delegates, so the delegates passing through security screening and issued with voting card, was suffice for accreditation.

He further held that the appellants were inconsistent with their prayers and should not have contradicted themselves in sworn affidavits.

The Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA) said, “The appellants were inconsistent in their case with contradictory evidence in the affidavits and documents placed before the court to challenge the validity of the December 4, 2014, Sokoto governorship primary election.

The JCA further held that the appellants have claimed in the first affidavit that there was no primary election, that deligates were not accredited and that the 1999 Constitution and APC guidelines were violated in the conduct of the primary.

In the second affidavit of the appellants, they claimed that some delegates were accredited and alloted with ballot papers for the same primary election, adding that it was completely wrong for the appellant to have made such inconsistent deposition.

The JCA also held that the claim of the appellant that he be declared winner of the said primary election was strange to law, having copiously claimed in his documentary evidence and affidavit placed before the court that there was no primary election.

Justice Abubakar Yahaya who presided over the appeal had reserved the verdict of the court after lawyers in the suit made their final brief of arguments .

Lawyer to the appellants, Roland Otaru, while making his final submissions had asked the appeal court to remove Tambuwal as governor on the grounds that he was not lawfully and validly elected as the APC gubernatorial candidate for the 2015 governorship election.

Andrew Orolua, Abuja.