Appeal Court Affirms Tribunal’s Ruling, Says Nasarawa Governor Duly Elected

A file photo of Governor Abdullahi Sule.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi, on Tuesday upheld the decision of the Election Petitions Tribunal affirming the election of Abdullahi Sule as the governor of Nasarawa State.

In its judgement, the court presided by Justice Jumai Sankey resolved all the five issues raised in the petition brought before it against the appellants, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, David Ombugadu.

The court held that the appellants were unable to prove their case and thereby affirmed the verdict earlier passed by the Tribunal, which confirmed that Mr Sule was legally and lawfully returned as governor of Nasarawa State.

In his reaction, counsel to the governor, Dr Mubarak Adekunle, hailed the decision of the appellate court.

He said, “The Court of Appeal in Makurdi has just delivered its judgement. The court resolved all the five issues against the appellant.

“The Tribunal stroke out several paragraphs of their reply to Engineer A. A Sule’s reply. They appealed against that and the Court of Appeal affirmed it that the Tribunal was very right to have struck out all those paragraphs.”

“On all the allegations which border on disenfranchisement, cancellation of votes, inflation of votes and deflation of votes, the Court of Appeal affirmed that the Tribunal was right that they were unable to prove their allegations,” he added.

Adekunle added that on whether Governor Sule was fully or properly returned as elected, the appellate court affirmed that the appellants were unable to prove their case, having resolved all the allegations against the appellant.

He noted that the court affirmed the verdict of the Tribunal that “Engineer Sule was legally, lawfully and properly returned as Governor of Nasarawa State.”