Tribunal Declares Ombugadu Winner of Nasarawa Governorship Election

The Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia has declared David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the March 18 election in the state.

In a virtual judgement that lasted for more than four hours, the Chairman of the panel in a majority judgement Justice Ezekiel Ajayi declared Ombugadu as the rightful winner of the election and not Gov. Abdullahi Sule of All Progressives Congress (APC).

The majority judgment was agreed by Justice Chiemelie Onaga, member one of the panel.

The tribunal collated the lawful results cast at the various polling units and declared that Ombugadu had the majority of valid votes at the election.

The chairman of the tribunal added that the candidate of PDP had provided the results of the various polling units, forms EC 8A, and had proved to the tribunal that the results were manipulated in favor of the APC.

He therefore ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Sule and issue a new one to the rightful winner.

Meanwhile, there was a dissenting judgment delivered by Justice Ibrahim Mashi, member two of the panel.

The member in his dissenting judgment dismissed the petition filed by the PDP candidate for lacking in merit.

He said that the petitioner had failed to prove his case and therefore upheld the declaration of Gov. Sule.

Reacting to the judgment, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), counsel to the petitioner, Johnson Usman, lauded the tribunal for a detailed judgment.

The counsel added that the tribunal had proven that indeed court is the last hope of a common man by affirming the decision of the majority of the people of the state at the poll.