The Court of Appeal in Abuja has made a momentous decision to reverse the sack of Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, which was ordered by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in a judgment delivered on October 2.
In a groundbreaking ruling delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Appellate Court stated that the Tribunal, led by Ezekiel Ajayi, committed a grave error in its decision-making process. The Court held that the Tribunal erred in using witness statements not filed within the required timeframe, ultimately leading to the unjust nullification of the governor’s election.
The Court highlighted that the Tribunal was legally obligated to consider only witness statements filed along with the petition or within the 21-day period specified by law. Any amendments or inclusions made beyond this timeframe were deemed unlawful, thereby rendering the evidence inadmissible.
Furthermore, the Court dismissed the over-voting issues relied upon by the Tribunal to annul the election, stating that the allegations were not substantiated by law.
Justice Onyemenam emphasized that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was null and invalid due to the unlawful dismissal of jurisdictional issues raised by the governor at the hearing of the petition.
According to the Court, the Tribunal’s failure to consider and make findings on the jurisdictional issues amounted to a denial of fair hearing for the governor, rendering all decisions of the Tribunal invalid.
Consequently, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), affirming Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state.
It is noteworthy that INEC had initially declared Sule as the winner of the governorship election, having secured a total of 347,209 votes, surpassing his closest opponent, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, who garnered 283,016 votes.
On October 2, the tribunal had controversially nullified Sule’s election and upheld Ombugadu as the winner in a split decision.
