The election of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has been affirmed by the Supreme Court.
In its verdict on Friday, January 19, 2024, the apex court dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu, against Sule’s election.
In its lead judgement read by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court declared that Ombugadu’s appeal lacks merit.
The PDP had appealed to the apex court to set aside the November 23 judgement of the Court of Appeal which upheld Sule as the lawfully elected governor.
It canvassed that the October 2, 2023, judgement of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal granted in favour of PDP and Ombugadu be restored.
The party claimed that the Court of Appeal unjustly nullified the tribunal’s judgement and unjustly declared Sule as the winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.
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The PDP appealed that the votes of the people of Nasarawa State should count and be meaningful by declaring Ombugadu as the winner of the gubernatorial election as done by the tribunal.
The Appeal Court had, on November 23, 2023, reversed the sack of Governor Sule by the tribunal.
The appellate court held that the tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by law to conclude nullifying the election of the governor.
In a judgement delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal had said the tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law.
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 used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sule as the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled 347,209 votes to defeat Ombugadu who garnered 283,016 votes.
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