Tribunal upholds Sule election as Nasarawa governor

The governorship election petition tribunal has affirmed the victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The court, sitting along Shendam Road in Lafia, said that Mr. David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) filed a petition challenging the result of the March 9th election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared governor Sule as winner.

Delivering judgment, which lasted for 9 hours, the three-member tribunal headed by Justice Abba Mohammed dismissed the case filed by PDP and its candidate, Umbugadu on grounds that the petition lacked merit.

The PDP and its candidate were challenging the declaration that the election was not in compliance with the INEC guidelines and that the number of votes that returned the governor did not tally with the total number of accredited voters in the entire exercise.

In his remarks, the Speaker of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Ibrahim Abdullahi said: “The victory has further demonstrated that the judiciary is indeed, the last hope of the common man.”

In his reaction, Dr Mubakar, who is one of the counsel to Governor Sule, said: “The tribunal has painstakingly perused all the evidence and delivered a scholarly judgment.”

However, in his reaction, one of the lawyers of Mr. Umbugadu, Barrister Baba Ayiwulu said: “It is a decision of the petitioner to review the judgment and decide whether to appeal or not.”