By Ken Afor
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reversed the Tribunal’s invalidation of Abdullah Sule’s All Progressives Congress (APC) victory in the Nasarawa State gubernatorial election and reinstated him to the office instead of David Ombugadu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
On Thursday, Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, who led the three-member panel of the Appeal Court, declared that the Tribunal erred in not assessing the issue of jurisdiction prior to reaching its judgment on October 2nd.
Justice Onyemenam in his ruling said that the Tribunal was obligated to listen to matters of jurisdiction prior to continuing with the main case, as leaving it out would invalidate the results.
It further ruled that the Tribunal breaching Sule’s right to a fair hearing can be attributed to their failure to consider the jurisdiction issue raised by Sule during the Tribunal proceedings.
The Appellate Court declared that David Ombugadu and the PDP lacked sufficient justification to maintain their assertion of over voting, which the Tribunal cited as a key component of its decision to annul the election victory of Abdullahi Sule of the APC.
The Appellate Court determined that Ombugadu and the PDP did not succeed in demonstrating overvoting because they failed to provide original INEC documents, suggesting that the Tribunal was wrong to deduct 1,868 votes of Sule in four polling units.
The Court established that the witnesses presented by Ombugadu and the PDP in the disputed Chiroma and Gayam ward came forward with testimony based on second-hand information.
It would be recalled that in the March 18 Governorship Election in the state, Governor Sule polled a total of 347,209 votes, hence beating his runner up, Dr David Emmanuel Ombugadu of the PDP, who only scored 283,016 votes.
