The Appeal Court in Abuja has reserved judgment on the governorship election appeal for Nassarawa State instituted by Governor Abdullahi Sule against the election petition tribunal verdict in Lafia.
Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam informed all counsels after adopting their final Addresses that the date for the judgment will be communicated to the parties in due course.
The governorship election petition tribunal had in a split judgement, declared the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr David Ombugadu, as the lawful winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.
A dissenting ruling by one of the three judges, however, upheld the election of Governor Sule.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Counsel to the respondent (Ombugadu) Kanu Agabi SAN filed a motion seeking to strike out the appellant’s affidavit of facts and pages 8-85 as incompetent.
Counsel to the appellant (Governor Sule) Wole Olanipekun while disagreeing with the motion urged the court to disregard it as it is a mere distraction.
In his adumbration, Olanipekum, urged the Court to dismiss the judgment of the tribunal and allow the appeal of his client.
Olanipekun argued that the tribunal refused to take the submissions of their witnesses during the tribunal hearing and that data from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System ( BVAS) tendered to the Tribunal were merely dumped and without being properly explained.
In his response, after adopting his processes, Counsel to respondent Ombugadu and PDP Mr. Kanu Agabi( SAN) urged the Court to dismiss the appeal against the tribunal’s judgment stating that their evidence were merely documentary.
On the issue of BVAS, Agabi argued that it was sufficiently demonstrated in the tribunal as demanded by laws,with the various print outs from the machine shown, against the argument that they were merely dumped without being analysed.
Agabi who referred the court to the judgment of the Tribunal argued that in delivering judgment, the lower court painstakingly gave a clear breakdown of how it arrived at its decision.
He urged the court affirm the judgment of the tribunal which gives the PDP candidate victory.
Governor Abdullahi Sule had approached the Court of Appeal challenging the position of the governorship petition tribunal which declared PDP’s candidate, Mr David Ombugadu, as the lawful winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.
Evidential Governor Sule rejected the majority judgement read by the tribunal chairman, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, describing its position as unmeritorious and devoid of evidential support base or pillars.
According to the notice of Appeal, Governor Sule listed 27 grounds of appeals for determination by the appellate court.
Among others, Sule questioned the tribunal’s jurisdictional competence to order the immediate swearing-in of Ombugadu as the governor, pointing out that not being the final court, the tribunal lacks the requisite competence to do so.
Governor Sule also, averred that the majority decision of the lower Tribunal in declaring the return of PDP’s Ombugadu failed to be bound by the provisions of Section 179 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution as Amended and Section 66 of the Electoral Act 2022.
He equally emphasised that there was no evidence before the tribunal demonstrating the percentage of votes scored by Ombugadu vis-a-vis the total votes cast in two-thirds of the 13 Local Government Areas of the State to satisfy the provisions of Section 179(2) of the 1999 Constitution as Amended.
Sule, therefore, urged the Appellate Court to set aside the decision of the lower court and affirm his election victory as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Ombugadu, PDP, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents in the appeal.
Lateefah Ibrahim
