The Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has reserved judgment in a petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and its Governorship Candidate, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, challenging the re-election of Governor Abdullahi Sule.
This followed the adoption of final written addresses by all counsel in the matter during the sitting of the Tribunal Thursday in Lafia.
For the first time, Governor Abdullahi Sule, who is the second respondent in the petition, and his Deputy, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, appeared in the election trial court.
Adopting their final written address, INEC Lead Counsel Ishaka Muddie Dikko SAN urged the Tribunal to dismiss the petition on grounds that it is unnecessary, submitting that the difference of votes as submitted by the petitioners is reflected on exhibit RW2.
He added that his client, INEC, declared Engineer Abdullahi Sule the winner, who led the petitioners with 64, 193 lawful votes, saying the petitioners alleged that they would have led with 4,130.
Ishaka Muddie Dikko said the petitioners, having called all witnesses, claimed in their final written address that they would have led with 841 votes, adding that PDP has not established any wrongful deduction of votes.
Chief Wale Olanipekun SAN for Governor Abdullahi Sule, while adopting their final written address, explained that the job of the Tribunal has been reduced in terms of evidence and position of the law, as well as the testimonies of some prosecution witnesses, saying the tribunal has no jurisdiction to admit the Witnesses and their documents presented by the petitioners.
Chief Olanipekun submitted that based on the testimony of the PDP’s Star Witness, Barrister Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu, who admitted that his party, the PDP, inflate figures in its favour and deplete those of the APC, attributing the anomaly to “human error” the Senior Learned Silk argued that the tribunal cannot compute the figures for petitioners.
He added that the PDP has failed to score 25% in any of the 13 LGAs of the state during the March 18 governorship election in Nasarawa State, urging the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
Similarly, Dr Hassan Liman, SAN for APC, while adopting their final written address, prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition on grounds that it lacks merit, describing it as a “waste of resources for the good people of Nasarawa State”.
Relying on some documents admitted as exhibits before the tribunal, Dr Liman said Engineer Abdullahi Sule led the election with 64,193, adding that electoral matters are valued on figures, arguing that the petitioners’ have determined the matter against themselves.
Dr Hassan Liman SAN further argued that in the four polling units where the petitioners’ alleged overvoting occurred, they did not refer to the voter register, the BVAS machines presented before the tribunal by INEC were not demonstrated, and witnesses were not called from the affected polling units.
He added that the that they would have led with 1,780 votes in the affected polling units was not proved.
However, the PDP Lead Counsel Kanu Agabi SAN’s submission of the list of authorities in their final written address was objected to by the respondent’s counsel, who all argued that the document was submitted out of time.
Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, reserved his ruling on the application until the day of judgment.
Kanu Agabi, having adopted their final written address, argued that the decision of the Presidential Election Court does not inhibit the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on subpoenaed witnesses, saying the INEC subpoenaed witnesses were advisories.
He told the tribunal that they filed a number of polling unit results, maintaining that they contended the results of some Polling Units across the State, just as he explained that most of the documents tendered do not require testimonies of witnesses and urged the Tribunal to grant their prayers.
Having listened to the arguments of both parties, the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, reserved judgment on the matter.