A 5-man panel of the Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party seeking to upturn the electoral victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Sule as winner of the election with 347,209 votes to beat his closest challenger, Ombugadu, who polled 283,016 votes.
Not happy with the results declared by INEC, Ombugadu and his party, the PDP, filed a petition at the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the polls.
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On October 2, 2023, a 3-man panel of the election petition tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, in a split decision of two-to-one, declared Ombugadu, the validly elected governor of Nasarawa State.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, affirmed the election of Abdullahi Sule as Nasarawa State governor, after overturning the earlier decision of the election petition tribunal that removed him from office.
Delivering judgement on the appeal filed by Sule, a three-member panel of the appeal court held that the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was wrong to have declared David Ombugadu, as the winner of the 18 March election.
Not relenting, Ombugadu appealed at the apex court.
But in a lead judgment, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun dismissed Ombugadu’s appeal for being ‘devoid of merit, vexatious and incompetent.
The panel unanimously held that all the sister appeals abide by the instant judgment.
More so, the panel ordered parties to bear their respective costs.
Recall that Governor Sule was initially declared the winner of the polls by INEC.
But Ombugadu challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, arguing that he won the majority of valid votes during the contest.
In a split decision of the tribunal on October 2, two members, forming the majority, declared Ombugadu the winner of the election, while the minority opinion of the only other member affirmed Sule’s victory.
Sule subsequently appealed against the majority decision of the tribunal, and won.
