The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has sacked All Progressive Congress (APC) Governor, Abdullahi Sule, and declared David Ombugadu, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as duly elected.
In a ruling delivered on Monday, two of the three Justices agreed that the election was won by the PDP while one Judge dissented.
Governor Sule had sought re-election for a second term under the APC but faced stiff opposition during the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sule winner with a total of 347,209 votes thereby defeating his closest opponent, Ombugadu, who INEC said secured 283,016 votes.
But the three-man tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Oyeyemi Ajayi, who delivered their judgement by Zoom, upturned the INEC declared result in favour of Ombugadu.
In resolving the Preliminary Objections, the tribunal held that APC Objections on BVAS Machine/ Screenshots tendered by PDP is over-ruled because the BVAS reports were pleaded, relevant and admissible.
The tribunal further dismissed the objections and delved into the merits of the petition.
“The Tribunal deducted the votes of Chiroma having compared the entries in polling unit results with the ward result. Also the incorrect votes magically ascribed to Gayam is deducted.”
“Also the incorrect votes magically ascribed to Gayam is deducted. Chiroma and and Gayam regularised.
“The law is that only presiding officers can cancel Polling Units results. Ashige Results is hereby Restored,” the tribunal held.
The tribunal agreed entirely with the 2nd Petitioner on Kanje-Abuni. Votes wrongly added to APC deducted while Petitioners’ votes unjustly reduced have been added.
“Alwazan Mada votes restored in favour of 2nd Petitioner (PDP).”
The Tribunal held that Petitioners’ witnesses were all competent witnesses. The evidence of Petitioners’ witnesses are all admissible.
The tribunal agreed with the 2nd Petitioner on all contentions on over voting. Votes of Parties in the 4 PUs discountenanced and accordingly deducted as prayed by Petitioners.
The tribunal upheld all the Contentions of the 1st and 2nd Petitioners.
By a majority decision of 2 to 1, the tribunal upheld the prayers of the Petitioners that the votes were indeed inflated, sacked the incumbent and affirmed Ombugadu (1st Petitioner) as duly elected having polled the majority of lawful votes cast.