THE Court of Appeal in Abuja reversed the verdict of the State Election Petitions Tribunal’s dismissal of Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule which was handed out on October 2.
The three-member panel, chaired by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, delivered decision, holding that the Tribunal was legally required to act on witness testimonies filed with the petition or front-loaded within the 21-day period prescribed by law.
The Appellate Court ruled that the Tribunal, led by Ezekiel Ajayi, committed a grave error by relying on witness testimonies taken under oath that were not front-loaded as required by law to reach the unfair conclusion of nullifying the governor’s election.
The Court ruled that no petition can be properly changed outside of the 21-day period authorized by law, as the Tribunal did wrongly.
According to the Court of Appeal, the Tribunal denied the governor a fair hearing by failing to evaluate and make decisions on the jurisdictional issues submitted during the petition hearing.
Because the statements utilized by the Tribunal to sack the Governor were not front-loaded in accordance with the law, the court ruled that they were the result of illegality and had no probate value for a law Court to act on.
The Court also dismissed the over-voting claims presented to invalidate the election, stating that the allegations were not supported by law.
Justice Onyemenam ruled that the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, David Ombugadu, was null and void because the Tribunal unlawfully overlooked the governor’s jurisdictional concerns.
Justice Onyemenam concluded that denying the governor a fair hearing was disastrous and declared all Tribunal judgments invalid.
Following that, the Court revoked all rulings made against the governor and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), confirming Sule as the state’s duly elected governor.
INEC pronounced Sule the victor of the governorship race after he received 347,209 votes to defeat his nearest opponent, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, who received 283,016 votes.
However, on October 2, the tribunal overturned Sule’s election and declared Ombugadu the winner.
