THE Supreme Court has affirmed Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Nasarawa state governor.
In a unanimous decision on Friday, January 19, the apex court dismissed the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, David Ombugadu, against Sule’s election.
One of the court’s justices, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, read the lead judgment.
She stated that the court of appeals’ decision upholding Sule’s election was thorough and well thought out.
The panel dismissed the case for lack of merit and did not award any cost.
In October 2023, the governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital, sacked Sule as governor and declared Ombugadu as duly elected.
Two justices out of three ruled on Monday, October 2, that Ombugadu won the election, while one dissented.
In the judgement delivered virtually, the panel chairman, Ezekiel Ajayi, argued that there was no room for reasonable doubt, and the petitioner’s evidence was convincingly made.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the tribunal’s ruling and affirmed Sule as duly elected.
In its ruling on Thursday, November 23, the appellate court stated that the tribunal erred in naming Ombugadu as the legitimate winner.
The Court of Appeal decided that the tribunal did not give Sule a fair hearing.
It concluded that the tribunal erred in deducting Sule’s votes when the PDP failed to provide evidence of overvoting.
Dissatisfied with the appellate court’s ruling, Ombugadu approached the Supreme Court, where he lost on Friday, January 19.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Sule the election winner with 347,209 votes. Ombugadu came second with 283,016 votes, while Abdullahi Maidoya of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) garnered 11,726 votes.
A reporter with the ICIR
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