A prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Mansur Sokoto, has reacted to recent tribunal judgements on the governorship elections conducted in some northern states.
According to him, Islam is endangered by the proceedings of the governorship legal tussles of Taraba and Nasarawa states.
Mansur said this in a Facebook post he titled “Islam and Northern Arewa” in Hausa language, where he shared his reflection.
He said, “Review of the governorship legal tussles of some states these days is worrisome. If Taraba and Nasarawa fall to non-Muslims, then Islamic religion will be endangered.”
The Islamic cleric, after narrating his opinion, posed a question, saying “What’s the way out.”
Recall that the Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia sacked Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and declared Mr David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the rightful winner of the election.
The majority judgment was read by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, Chairman of the tribunal.
Justice Chiemelie Onaga, a member of the panel, agreed with the lead judgment read by the panel chairman. He said that the judgment was a temporary setback that they would learn from in order to restrategise and come out stronger.
The only dissenting judgment was delivered by Justice Ibrahim Mashi, who dismissed the petition filed by the PDP candidate and upheld the declaration of the governor by the INEC.
In his reaction on Monday, the governor had said, “I still remain the governor till Supreme Court decides otherwise because the law allows me to appeal and we will do that to reclaim our mandate.”
Also on Saturday, it was reported that the Taraba State Governorship Election Tribunal affirmed that Agbu Kefas of the Peoples Democratic Party is the validly elected governor of Taraba State.
The three-man panel dismissed the petition filed by the New Nigerian People’s Party and its candidate Prof. Sani Yahaya for lacking in merit.
The panel of justices of the tribunal said the petition challenging the election of Kefas lacks merit and consequently dismissed it.
