The Court of Appeal on Thursday overruled the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal decision which declared David Ombugadu, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.
A three – member panel of Justices in the appeal filed by Mr Sule, held that the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal erred in declaring David Ombugadu, the PDP candidate as the winner
Sule , the incumbent governor was initially declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC having scored a total of 347,209 against Ombugadu’s283,016 votes.
But Mr Ombugadu challenged the INEC declaration at the tribunal, arguing that he won the majority of valid votes .
Consequently, Ombugadu won at the tribunal as two members of the panel forming the majority decision on 2 October declared Ombugadu the winner of the election, while the minority opinion by one of the justices affirmed Mr Sule’s victory.
Not satisfied with the judgement of the Tribunal ,Sule approached the appeal court to reclaim his mandate
The appellant court panel led by Uchechukwu Onyemenam on its part,held that Sule was validly elected as Nasarawa State governor.
The panel faulted the tribunal for deducting Mr Sule’s votes to enhance Ombugadu ‘s
It pointed out that the evidence presented by PDP witnesses was insufficient to sack the governor adding that it was the duty of the Appeal court to dismiss any evidence that is “Illegally admissable’.
“Where a trial court admitted and acted on illegally inadmissible evidence, it is the duty of the appellate court to ensure that such illegally inadmissible evidence is expunged.
“A court of law is only allowed to act on legally admissible evidence. If documents are unlawfully allowed by a trial court, the appellate court is duty-bound to exclude the documents and discountenance the evidence,”
