The Court of Appeal in Abuja has set aside the sack of the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in the judgment delivered on October 2.
The Appellate Court held that the Tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in error by using witness statements on oath not front loaded as required by law to arrive at the conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor.
Delivering the judgment, the appellant court justices led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, held that the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition within 21 days as stipulated by law.
The Court also dismissed the over voting issues also used to nullify the election adding that allegations to that were not established by law.
The panel unanimously held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, David Ombugadu was invalid on the ground that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor Sule was unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal.
The Court reversed all orders made by the tribunal against the governor and the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and affirmed Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state.
