Tribunal Sacks Nasarawa Gov, Declares PDP’s Candidate Winner

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has nullified the election of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, and declared Dr. Emmanuel Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) thevalidly elected governor of the state.

Delivering the over four hours judgment virtually, chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, maintained that the evidence presented by the petitioner indicated that, Ombugadu scored majority of the lawful votes cast during the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state.

Ajayi consequently directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a Certificate of Return to Ombugadu of the PDP.

Justice Chiemelie Onaga, also, aligned with the verdict of the chairman of the tribunal, adding that the petitioner scored the majority of the lawful votes.

In resolving the preliminary objections, the tribunal held that APC’s objections on BVAS Machine/Screenshots tendered by PDP was over-ruled because the BVAS reports were pleaded, relevant and admissible.

The tribunal further dismissed the objections and delved into the merits of the petition.

Votes of Chiroma Electoral Ward was deducted by the tribunal, having compared the entries in Polling Units results with the ward result, even as the incorrect votes ascribed to Gayam Electoral Ward was also deducted.

The incorrect votes ascribed to Gayam ward was deducted, while Chiroma and Gayam Wards were regularised.

The tribunal, therefore, ruled that the law recognised that only the Presiding Officers could cancel Polling Units results, hence Ashige Electoral Ward results was restored by the tribunal.

The tribunal agreed entirely with the second Petitioner on Kanje-Abuni Electoral Ward as votes wrongly added to APC were deducted, while the petitioner’s votes unjustly reduced were added. In addition, Alwazan Mada Polling Unit votes were restored in favour of the second petitioner, PDP.

The tribunal held that the petitioners’ witnesses were all competent witnesses as the evidence of the petitioners’ witnesses were all admissible, and went on to agree with the second petitioner on all contentions on over voting and votes of political parties in the four Polling Units discountenanced and accordingly deducted as prayed by the petitioners.

The tribunal equally upheld all the contentions of the first and second petitioners.

Thus, by a majority decision of 2 to 1, the tribunal upheld the prayers of the petitioners that the votes were indeed inflated, and consequently sacked the incumbent governor and affirmed Ombugadu as duly elected, having polled the majority of lawful votes cast.

In a dissenting judgment, Justice Ibrahim Mashi dismissed the petition for the inability of the petitioner to demonstrate how he scored the majority of the votes.

Counsel to the petitioner, Johnson Usman, said the majority judgment has affirmed Ombugadu as the lawful elected governor of the state.

Reacting to the tribunal’s decision, Ombugadu’s counsel, Mr Johnson Usman (SAN), lauded it for a detailed judgment.

The counsel said the tribunal had proved that the court is the last hope of the common man by affirming the decision of the majority of the people of the state at the poll.