NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia
Legal fireworks take centre stage as the election petition Tribunal for Nasarawa State resumed hearing of the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic party, David ombugadu, challenging the election of Abdullahi Sule as governor of Nasarawa Stateduring the 18 March governorship election. At the resumed hearing on Friday and Saturday, the three-man panel led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi listened to arguments and counter-arguments canvassed by counsels to the plaintiff, the Governor Sule and the All progressives Congress and the Independent national Electoral Commission, INEC. The exchanges bothered on the admissibility or otherwise of documents and witnesses tendered and called by the Complainant.
During the sitting which held at the State High Court headquarters in Lafia, the petitioner through his lawyer from M.J Numa chambers tendereddocuments including voter registers, list of ad hoc staff, result sheets from several Local Government Areas,among others, to proof his case. Counsels to the respondents both objected to the admissibility of the documents but reserved their oppositional arguments to the stage of final addresses. Justice Ajayi reserved ruling on the propriety of the admissibility of the documents or otherwise but allowed them to be tendered
The petitioner also called witnesses from Lafia and Toto councils to substantiate his allegation of rigging. Although the defendants’ lawyers objected to calling to witnesses to testify, they reserved their argument to a later date. This paved the way or the panel to allow for witness testimonies. The witnesses, Ehaluka Aaron, Samule Dakwe and Ibrahim Umar Othman told who were PDP agents during the election identified their deposition and told the court that they signed the documents under duress. While cross examining the witnesses, counsels to INEC and Governor Sule each tried to find loopholes in the testimonies of the witnesses.
It will be recalled that Ombugadu who was also a contestant in the 2019 governorship election, approached the Tribunal to upturn the declaration of Sule as the elected governor of Nasarawa State, citing irregularities in the conduct of the polls. He is praying the Tribunal to declare him winner based on evidences he is presenting before the court in accordance with the 1999 constitution as amended and the Electoral Act 2022.
The panel adjourned sitting to 13thn of July 2023 for further hearing of the matter.
Nasarawa State has been in the news in relation to politics. The election elections unleashed a wave of protests, mainly in the capital, Lafia. Bare-body women have been sighted protesting along major streets in the city. The intensity of the protests forced the State police command to ban all forms of protests in the State.
Protesters from the camps of the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party also took prominent positions to make their voices heard. A section of Shendam road where all major government establishments, including the Government House, House of Assembly and Judiciary Headquarters are located was partly cordoned by anti-riot policemento forestall the breakdown of law and order.