The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Governor Sule Abdullahi of Nasarawa State with the dismissal of the petition instituted against his election by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its governorship candidate, Emmanuel David Ombugadu.
The court upheld the Governor’s election on the ground that the allegations made against it were not established.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, in a lead and unanimous judgment, said the petition of PDP and Ombugadu could not be attached with any probative value.
The apex court dismissed the allegations of unlawful calculations of votes by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the reason that the allegations could not stand the credibility examination.
INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent David Emmanuel Ombugadu who secured 283,016 votes.
The Appeal Court had, on November 23 2023, reversed the sack of Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered 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 law to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor.
The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal.
Also, the Court had dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established.
