The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Sokoto State has granted the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, leave to serve Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, their petition through substituted means.
The applicants counsel led by Barrister Steve Nwoke submitted that it has been difficult to physically serve Tambuwal his copy of the petition filed by the applicants.
The party and its candidate are challenging the outcome of the March 9, 2019 and March 23, 2019, rerun governorship polls in the state.
The court, therefore, granted the prayer of the applicants to allow them to serve Tambuwal the petition through the state legal adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Similarly, the tribunal also granted leave to the applicants to inspect the election materials like ballot papers, forms and card readers used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the elections.
Tribunal Chairman, Justice Abbas Bawale Abdullahi, while granting the leave, said that the tribunal had carefully perused the applications and they have merits.
Similarly, Abdullahi also granted Tambuwal and the PDP to inspect the same materials as well as invite forensic experts to conduct physical inspection of materials used for the elections and obtain true certified copies of documents.
