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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, yesterday, reversed the nullification of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State election and affirmed the victory of Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State
The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, voided the verdict of the Nasarawa State governorship rlection petition tribunal, which earlier sacked Governor Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Uchechukwu Onuemenam, who delivered the lead judgment, said the evidence before the appellate court established that the tribunal relied on legally inadmissible evidence to declare the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu, as the valid winner of the governorship election that was held in the state on March 18.
According to the appellate court, the tribunal wrongly relied on the evidence of eight of the witnesses that were produced by the PDP candidate, whose statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition.
It said Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended; Section 132(7) of the Electoral Act 2022 and Paragraphs 4(5) (6) and 14(2) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, stipulate that every written statement on oath must be filed alongside the petition, within the statutorily allocated time.
“Where a trial court admitted and acted on an illegally inadmissible evidence, it is the duty of the appellate court to ensure 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.”
The court proceeded to strike out all the evidence and exhibits that were tendered before the tribunal by the eight witnesses. It held that the evidence of 12 remaining witnesses that testified for the PDP candidate were not sufficient to sustain the judgment of the tribunal. More so, the appellate court held that the tribunal was in error, when it deducted 1,868 votes that were credited to Governor Sule, on the premise that over-voting occurred in four polling units.
It held that the tribunal was wrong in its decision, since the petitioners did not provide necessary documents needed to prove over-voting.
The court noted that Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, and other electoral documents, were merely dumped on the tribunal without any of them demonstrating to show how the over-voting occurred.
It faulted the tribunal for summarily dismissing the evidence of witnesses that testified for the APC candidate, describing the action as perverse, adding that none of the witnesses that were called by the PDP and its candidate, gave valid evidence that the tribunal could have acted on.
It held that the tribunal acted wrongly when it recomputed votes and made the declaration that returned the PDP candidate as winner of the election.
“On the whole, I hold that this appeal has merit and succeeds, the majority judgment of the tribunal delivered on October 2 is hereby dismissed,” the court said.
Consequently, it vacated the order of the tribunal that directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to Governor Sule as the winner of the governorship contest.
INEC had declared Sule as the winner of the election with 347,209 votes to beat his closest challenger, Ombugadu, who garnered 283,016 votes.
Dissatisfied with the results declared by INEC, Ombugadu and his party, the PDP, filed a petition at the governorship election tribunal in the state to challenge the outcome of the polls.
On October 2, the three-member election petition tribunal, led by Ezekiel Ajayi, by a split decision of two-to-one, declared Ombugadu the validly elected governor of Nasarawa State.
Evaluating the evidence before the panel, Ajayi held that Ombugadu tendered the results of the various polling stations and forms EC 8A and substantiated his claim that poll results were manipulated in favour of Sule.
Another member of the tribunal, Chiemelie Onaga, concurred with the lead judgment read by Ajayi.
But, a dissenting decision of the other member of the tribunal, Ibrahim Mashi, dismissed Ombugadu’s petition for lacking in merit.
Displeased with the judgment, Governor Sule filed his appeal to challenge the majority decision.
Also in the Court of Appeal in Abuja, Governor Yahaya’s re-election was reaffirmed.
INEC had declared Yahaya as winner after scoring 342,821 votes to defeat his closest rival, Jibrin Barde, candidate of PDP who polled 233,131 votes.
Displeased, the PDP and its candidate filed a petition claiming that Yahaya, who contested on the platform of APC, was not re-elected by a majority of lawful votes.
The opposition party alleged cases of ballot box stuffings and thumb printings done by Yahaya’s supporters in nine of the state’s 11 councils.
However, the Gombe State governorship election petition tribunal dismissed the suit filed by the party and Barde.
S. B. Belgore, who led a three-member panel of the tribunal, struck out the petition.
Not satisfied with the tribunal’s verdict, Barde and PDP approached the Appeal Court.
Reading the lead judgment, yesterday, T. N. Orji-Abadua upheld the governor’s victory and dismissed the appeal.
“This appeal lacks merit,” she said.
“All the issues are resolved in favour of the respondent and against the appellant. No order as to cost. The judgment of the lower tribunal is hereby affirmed.”
