NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city has declared that Abdullahi Sule, the incumbent governor of Nasarawa State, duly won the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
The three-man panel led by Justice Onyemenam Uchechukwu ruled that among other things, the appeal filed by Sule who had earlier been sacked by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, GEPT, succeeded because the witnesses called by his opponent at the court of first instance, depended on hearsay therefore, their claims could not be substantiated.
The court also averred that it was against the spirit of the law for the Tribunal to have countenanced the evidence of subpoenaed witnesses whose written statements were not frontloaded along the petition. It consequently voided the evidence given by about seven witnesses in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate.
The court also held that evidence provided orally and in written form failed to proof over voting, hence the Tribunal was wrong to have deducted or recalculated the votes from the total garnered by the candidates, a plank on which the lower court based its judgment. The justices also noted that the Bio-modal Accreditation Machines, BVAS, produced during the trial at the lower court were not demonstrated but instead were ‘dumped before the Tribunal’.
Asa result, the lead Justice proclaimed that “on the whole, I hold that this appeal has merit and succeeds. The majority judgment delivered on October 2nd is hereby dismissed.” The jurist consequently reversed the order of the Tribunal which had mandated the INEC to retrieve the certificate of return given to David Ombugadu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic party, PDP.
Today’s verdict follows an appeal filed by Governor Abdullahi Sule and the APC challenging the majority judgment of two to one delivered by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, GEPT. The GEPT had in October annulled the election of Governor Sule, citing substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was ordered to withdraw the certificate of return issued him and give same to Ombugadu.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, Governor Sule and the APC approached the Court of Appeal, praying it to set aside the judgment of the Tribunal and uphold his election as declared by the INEC in March 2023. The long-drawn ligation has polarised the State along ethnic, religious and political lines, with even high-profile individuals found making inciting comments in the media.