From Victor Osula, Abuja
Governor Abdullahi Sule
The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday voided the Judgement of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and declared David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party as winner of the March 18 governorship poll held in the state.
The Tribunal had in a majority decision on October 2, nullified Sule’s election and declared David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the winner of the election.
Sule had approached the appellate court seeking to set aside the judgement of the tribunal given on October 2, 2023..
In a judgement on Thursday, a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, held that the Tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded results as required by law to arrive at its judgement.
The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal.
The Court also dismissed the over-voting issues, also used to nullify the election of Governor Sule.
