APPEAL COURT TO RULE ON NASARAWA GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION CASE IN SULE VS OMBUGADU

Babatunji Wusu –

In the disagreement over the Nasarawa State gubernatorial election, the Court of Appeal in Abuja has started to rule.

The appeal court’s justices have begun reading the decision as demonstrators, brandishing placards and singing, have taken over a significant portion of the court road.

Remember that David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) filed an appeal with the tribunal after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) certified Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the victor of the March election.

INEC reports that Sule defeated his nearest rival, who received 283,016 votes, with a total of 347,209 votes.

On October 2, however, the tribunal declared Ombugadu the winner and declared Sule’s election to be invalid due to a divided vote.

However, Sule requested that the appellate court reverse the tribunal’s ruling and grant his own appeal through his attorney, Wole Olanipekun (SAN).

Olanipekun contended that the BVAS statistics were only thrown in front of the tribunal without being taken into consideration as evidence, and that the panel had declined to accept the testimony of their witnesses during the tribunal hearing.

Kanu Agabi, the PDP’s and Ombugadu’s attorney, adopted his own procedures and then asked the court to reject the appeal against the tribunal’s decision, arguing that their evidence was just documentary.

Agabi refuted the claim that the BVAS were just dumped without being examined, stating that the evidence was adequately presented in the tribunal as required by law, including the machine output.

Agabi contended that the lower court meticulously detailed its decision-making process in its verdict, and he pointed the court to the tribunal’s ruling.

The appellate court had not rendered a decision.