Appeal court reserves judgment on Nasarawa governorship

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday reserved judgment in the appeal by the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, against the judgment of the tribunal which declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, David Ombugad, the winner of the state governorship election.

 

The tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi in a split judgment held that based on the proof from the various polling units before the tribunal, Ombugadu had the majority of valid votes at the election

 

But Sule appealed the judgment and asked the appellate court to set it aside.

 

At the hearing on Wednesday, counsel for the governor, Wole Olanipekun SAN, argued that the tribunal misapplied the law in reaching its decision.

 

He contended that the tribunal erroneously relied on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine tendered as evidence without any demonstration by the petitioners or the court.

 

Olanipekun averred that the tribunal did not see evidence of overvoting in any of the Independent National Electoral Commission Form EC8AS tendered by the petitioners but went ahead to nullify his client’s election.

 

However, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi SAN, argued that the tribunal analysed the contents of the BVAS, contrary to the submissions of Olanipekun.

 

He added that if a court has examined exhibits before it, its judgment cannot be unfair.

 

Kanu then urged the court to dismiss the appeal, saying there were other arguments he could have made but could not due to time constraints.

 

The Court of Appeal, however, reserved judgment on the matter.