The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday affirmed the election of Abdullahi Sule as Nasarawa State governor, after overturning the earlier decision of the election petition tribunal that removed him from office.
Delivering judgement on the appeal filed by Mr Sule, a three-member panel of the appeal court held that the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was wrong to have declared David Ombugadu, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the March 18 election.
Mr Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was initially declared the winner of the polls by Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC but Mr Ombugadu challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, arguing that he won the majority of valid votes during the contest.
In a split decision of the tribunal on October 2, two members, forming the majority, declared Mr Ombugadu the winner of the election, while the minority opinion of the only other member affirmed Mr Sule’s victory. Mr Sule subsequently appealed against the majority decision of the tribunal.
Deciding the governor’s appeal on Thursday, the Court of Appeal held that Mr Sule was validly elected as Nasarawa State governor. The appellate court panel led by Uchechukwu Onyemenam said Mr Ombugadu failed to prove his allegation of over-voting levelled against Mr Sule.
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