The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday reversed the sack of the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered on 2ND of October.
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 arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor.
The Court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal 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.
Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP was nullity and invalid on the grounds that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal.
It would be recalled that INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of over three hundred thousand votes to defeat his closest opponent David Emmanuel Ombugadu who secured over two hundred thousand votes.
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