BY VICTOR BUORO – Respite has come for Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State as the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday upturned his removal by the State Governorship Election Tribunal. Emmanuel David Ombugadu
In their ruling, the three-member panel of justices unanimously held that the Nasarawa State Election Petition Tribunal erred in law in concluding that Sule did not win the majority of the votes cast in the election.
Consequently, the Appellate court set aside the judgment of the lower tribunal and affirmed Engineer Abdullahi A Sule as the winner and duly elected Governor of the March 18, 2023 poll in Nasarawa State for a second term.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Governor Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) victorious in the March election but Emmanuel David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) headed for the tribunal to ventilate his grievances.
From the INEC’s declared results, Sule scored a total of 347,209 votes to defeat Ombugadu, his closest contestant who pooled 283,016 votes.
But in a split decision on October 2, the State Election Petition Tribunal nullified Suleโs election and upheld Ombugadu as the Governor-elect, a decision that saw the governor, through his counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), approaching the Court of Appeal for the verdict to be upturned.
