The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upturned the removal of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.
David Ombugadu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) headed to the tribunal after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the March election.
Electoral commission figures show that Sule secured 347,209 votes, beating his closest opponent 283,016.
However, in a split decision on October 2, the tribunal nullified Sule’s election and upheld Ombugadu as the winner.
But Sule, through his counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), asked the appellate court to upturn the judgment of the tribunal and allow his own appeal.
Olanipekun argued that the tribunal refused to take the submissions of their witnesses during the tribunal hearing, adding that the BVAS data were merely dumped before the tribunal without being considered as evidence.
A three-member panel of justices unanimously held on Thursday that the Nasarawa State Election Petition Tribunal erred in law in concluding that Sule did not win the majority of the votes cast in the election.
The appellate court subsequently set aside the judgment of the tribunal and affirmed the re-election of Sule as Governor of Nasarawa State.
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