The Court of Appeal in Abuja has returned Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor of Nasarawa State, upturning a tribunal judgment that initially sacked him and declared David Ombugadu of the People’s Democratic Party winner.
The three-member Appeal Court panel led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam said the Tribunal had a fundamental duty to hear issues of jurisdiction before going ahead to hear the main case, as failing to do so renders the outcome null and void.
Justice Onyemenam held that Ombugadu and the PDP did not have enough grounds to sustain the claim of over voting owing to their failure to produce original INEC documents.
The court subsequently overruled the Tribunal’s decision to deduct 1,868 votes of Sule in four polling units and affirmed him as duly elected Governor of Nasarawa.
