Appeal Court upholds Nassarrawa Gov. Sule’s election
The Court of Appeal, on Thursday, upheld the election of Nassarrawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule.
The appellate court, in arriving at the verdict, decided to set aside the earlier ruling by the state election petitions tribunal.
The tribunal, headed by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, gave a verdict sacking the governor from office. Dissatisfied with the ruling, Governor Sule decided to file an appeal.
Ruling, Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, leading two other justices on the appeal panel, faulted the tribunal for relying on a witness deposition not front-loaded in the instant suit.
According to him, it is impossible to introduce a new evidence outside of the 21 days stipulated by the law for doing such. Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam equally overruled the tribunal on the issue of over-voting in Sule’s election.
Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu, was null and invalid based on the tribunal’s refusal to hear the issue of jurisdiction raised by Governor Sule. He concluded that the incumbent did not get a fair hearing.
TheCornet reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Governor Sule as the winner of the poll, with 347,209 votes.
His closest challenger, Ombugadu polled 283,016 votes.
