Nasarawa State: Governorship Election Tribunal Reserves Judgement on PDP’s Petition

Amina Mohammed, Lafia.

Last updated Sep 14, 2023

The Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has reserved judgment on the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate, Dr. David Ombugadu, challenging the victory of the incumbent Governor Abdullahi Sule in the March 18 guber elections.

This followed the adoption of final written addresses by all the parties in the petition during its sitting in Lafia, the State capital.

Adopting their written addresses, counsel to the PDP’s governorship candidate, Kanu Agabi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), prayed the tribunal to consider the facts before it as evident in the differences between the form EC8A’s and Form EC8B to declare the PDP candidate as winner of the governorship election in the State.

(Left) The APC’s guber candidate and incumbent Governor Abdullahi Sule; the PDP’s guber candidate in the March 18 Governorship Election, Dr. David Ombugadu (Right).

He also argued that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate failed to file a cross-petition to establish their responses.

READ MORE: PDP Rejects Nasarawa Gubernatorial Election Results, Stages Protest

He further argued that the PDP candidate had the highest number of votes cast in the election, based on the records in the INEC Result-Viewing Portal (IReV) and the information of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines that were used at various polling units in the State.

In their separate submissions, counsel to the INEC, Ishiaku Dikko, SAN; counsel to Governor Abdullahi Sule, Wole Olanikpekun, SAN, and Hassan Liman, SAN all urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition over the failure of the petitioners to prove reduction in their votes.

Counsel to the APC, Olanikpekun, also argued that the petitioner had dumped the BVAS machines and IReV records at the tribunal without showing what was contained in the records.

He said that the petitioner only presented the records in the IReV and BVAS machines to the tribunal without displaying them for everyone at the tribunal to see.

After listening to the parties, chairman of the tribunal Justice Ezekiel Ajayi adjourned the sitting, saying that all the parties would be communicated on the date for the judgment.