The Court of Appeal in Abuja has overturned the tribunal’s decision and upheld Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the validly elected Governor in the Nasarawa Governorship poll held on March 18, 2023.
INEC announced on March 20 that the incumbent APC candidate, Abdullahi, secured victory with 347,209 votes, surpassing his closest rival, PDP’s David Emmanuel Ombugadu, who garnered 283,016 votes.
Expressing discontent with the declared results, Ombugadu and the PDP, represented by their lead counsel Chief Godwin Kanu Agabi SAN, sought redress at the tribunal, listing INEC, Audu, and APC as the first, second, and third defendants, respectively.
The Petitioners prayed amongst others:
-That the 2nd defendant did not score the majority of lawful votes and that in turn, it was the 1st Petitioner who indeed won the election and should have been declared winner.
On 2nd October, In a leading judgement of 2-1; the tribunal upheld the petition (EPT/NS/GOV/01/2023), sacked Gov Sule and affirmed Ombugadu as winner.
The tribunal held that there were calculation errors that aided the declared victory of the 2nd defendant and subsequently ordered INEC to withdraw the Certificate issued to him and awarded to the 1st Petitioner.
Dismayed by the outcome, Gov Sule through lead Counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN headed to the penultimate Court in these matters.
The Appeal Court (in) Suit No: CA/MK/EP/GOV/NS/30/2023, averred that Gov Sule was not given fair hearing.
“The tribunal was wrong to have countenanced the evidence of the subpoenaed witnesses whose witness statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition. Therefore, the evidence of PW5, PW6, PW7, PW8, PW12, PW13, PW20 & PW21 and all the exhibits tendered through them are expunged from the records of the Court for been consequently incompetent and hence struck out,” the Court held.
The panel led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam JCA subsequently nullified the majority decision of the tribunal, and re-affirmed Gov Sule as duly elected and returned.
