On Thursday, the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court reversed the sack of Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule by the state election petitions tribunal on October 2.
The appellate court held that the tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by the law to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the governor’s election.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal said the tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law.
The court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the tribunal.
It added that since the statements used by the tribunal to sack the governor were not front-loaded in compliance with the law, they were the product of illegality with no probate value for a law court to act upon.
The court also dismissed the overvoting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law.
Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was null and invalid on the ground that the tribunal unlawfully ignored the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor.
According to the Court of Appeal, the tribunal denied the governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the petition hearing.
Justice Onyemenam agreed that denying a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all tribunal decisions invalid.
The Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It affirmed Mr Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state.
INEC had declared Mr Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent, David Ombugadu, who secured 283,016 votes.
(NAN)
