The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has affirmed the March 18, 2023 election which returned Abdulahi Sule as governor of Nasarawa State, dismissing the judgment of the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had sacked Sule and ordered the withdrawal of the Certificate Of Return issued by INEC.
The 3-man Appellate court led by Justice Uchechukwu Oyemenem in a unanimous decision held that the Tribunal erred in law when it ordered the deduction of 1,868 votes from the APC candidate, Abdulahi Sule, as David Ombugadu and the PDP failed to prove that there was over voting in certain polling units.
The Appal Court consequently ordered that the Certificate Of Return earlier withdrawn by the Tribunal, be issued back to Governor Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the duly elected Governor of Nasarawa State.
In the judgment, the Appeal Court panel held that the Election Petitions Tribunal headed by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath not front loaded as required by law to arrive at the conclusion of nullifying the election of the Governor.
The appellate Court held that the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days as stipulated by law.
Justice Onyemenam also held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was a nullity and invalid on the ground that the jurisdictional issues raised by Governor Sule was unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal, thereby denying the Appellants fair hearing.
The Appeal Court Justices notes that it is incumbent on the Tribunal to make findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition.
On the issue of over-voting which was the reason why 1,868 votes were deducted from the score of the Appellant, the Court held that only the voters register, BVAS report, and the list of total accredited voters are the major documents that can be used to prove over-voting.
The Court said the 1st and 2nd Respondents only dumped screenshots of BVAS reports on the Tribunal and failed to provide enough Certified True Copy (CTC) of INEC result sheets to prove over voting.
In all, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against Governor Sule, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, and affirmed Governor Abdulahi Sule as lawfully elected.
ait.live recalls that the Nasarawa State Governorship and State House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, had on October 2, 2023 in a split decision of two-to-one by a three-man panel, declared the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu as the winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship contest in the State, prompting Governor Sule who was declared winner of the election by INEC to appeal the judgement of the Tribunal.
Editor: Ken Eseni
