The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the election of Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, overturning the decision of the Nasarawa State Election Petitions Tribunal that had sacked him from office.
The appellate court, in its decision delivered on Thursday, set aside the October 2 judgement of the tribunal that had declared David Ombugadu, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the governorship election.
The court, led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, ruled that the tribunal erred in law by relying on witness statements that were not filed along with the petition or front-loaded within the 21 days stipulated by the constitution.
The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal.
The tribunal’s decision to use these statements to nullify Sule’s election was a grave error and denied the governor a fair hearing, the court held.
It also dismissed the over-voting allegations used by the tribunal to annul the election, stating that these allegations were not established by law.
Justice Onyemenam also ruled that the petition filed by Ombugadu was null and void because the tribunal failed to consider and rule on the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor.
Onyemenam concurred that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and rendered all decisions of the tribunal invalid.
Consequently, the appellate court reversed all orders made against Governor Sule and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Following that, the appeals court reaffirmed Sule as the duly elected governor of Nasarawa State.
Sule was declared the winner of the governorship election by INEC based on his total of 347,209 votes, outpacing his closest opponent, Ombugadu, who received 283,016 votes.