The Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, David Ombugadu, against the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule.
Ombugadu is appealing to the apex court to set aside the judgement of the Appeal court which nullified the judgement of the Nasarawa State election petition tribunal that declared him the winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.
After listening to the counsels of the different parties involved in the matter on Tuesday, the five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, adjourned the matter for judgement.
According to Kekere-Ekun, the date for the judgement will be communicated to the parties involved when it is ready.
News About Nigeria recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on March 20, 2023, declared Governor Sule, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the governorship election in the state.
The governor, according to the result by INEC, polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ombugadu of the PDP, who got 283,016 votes.
Dissatisfied with the result of the poll, the PDP and its candidate headed for the tribunal, where Governor Sule was sacked and Ombugadu was declared the winner of the March 18, 2023 election.
In its judgement, the tribunal led by Ezekiel Ajayi ruled that after proper vetting and evaluation of the evidence before the panel, the PDP candidate was able to prove that the Nasarawa state gubernatorial poll results were tampered with to favour the candidate of the APC.
Following the tribunal’s judgement that sacked Sule from office, the governor then appealed the decision of the tribunal at the appeal court, where he was able to reclaim his mandate.
The appellate court, in it’s judgement, reinstated Governor Sule because the tribunal only relied on the evidence of eight of the PDP witnesses, whose statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition.
Following the appeal court’s reversal of his victory given by the tribunal, Ombugadu of the PDP filed an appeal at the Supreme Court to appeal the appellate court’s decision.
