CHEKE EMMANUEL reports on the claims and counter-claims that have characterised proceedings of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal as parties present their defences

Tension is high as the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal gets set to adopt written addresses and subsequent delivery of judgement in the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu, challenging the declaration of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the March 18 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The PDP governorship candidate’s main grouse is that the governorship election which was peacefully conducted and results collated at the polling units into form EC8AS as stipulated in the Electoral Act of 2022 is however, midway witnessed inflation of figures at the ward, local government and state collation centres. Ombugadu claimed that his votes were tempered with, especially, in four electoral wards of Tungwa (Awe LG), Chiroma andGayam wards in Lafia and total cancellation of Ashiege ward in Lafia East.

“We are in court to challenge those inflations. We are also insisting that the INEC BVAS, Irev-CTC screen shots and form EC8AS be used by the tribunal as the basis for determining the truth of what transpired during the March 18 governorship election in Nasarawa State,” spokesperson for the governorship candidate, Hon. Jonathan Ipaa, said.

As expected, a fierce legal battle has raged since the tribunal commenced sitting on Ombugadu’s petition. At the moment, INEC. PDP and the second Respondent, Governor Sule have closed their respective defence before the three-man panel led by Justice Ezekiel Oyeyemi Ajayi.

Sule’s defence

Sule, in defence, dismissed the claim by Ombugadu that the election was by irregularities. The APC candidate insisted that he secured the highest number of votes and having met the requirements of the law, was returned elected. He further claimed non-collation of valid APC votes across various collation centres in the state during the gubernatorial election.

Governor Sule’s position was validated by witnesses, who testified for him before the tribunal. They revealed how the governor’s votes were not only improperly collated at various ward collation centres, but reduced, while that of the PDP was inflated. Governor Sule, through his defence counsel, Dr. Mubarak Adekiekun presented six witnesses before the tribunal and who revealed that results from various polling units were unduly manipulated in favour of the PDP at the ward collation level.

Testifying before the tribunal, witness number two for the second respondent, Isham Abubakar Dan’azumi, a farmer and politician, having deposed to a statement of oath before the tribunal, referred to polling units and wards results of Wuse electoral ward in Awe Local Government Area, particularly RW42 and RW64.

The witness said though the governorship election held peacefully throughout the ward, with INEC officials using the BVAS machine to authenticate voters and presiding officers uploading the results on the IREV, the results for Wuse TV Centre, which is Polling Unit 010, was manipulated in favour of the PDP at the ward collation centre.

The witness under cross examination, confirmed evidence tendered before the tribunal by the lead counsel to the APC, being the first respondent, Mathew Burkah, which showed that though APC scored 353 votes at the polling unit, with PDP recording 37, the collation at the registration area of Wuse electoral ward, showed that the votes of APC was reduced to 193, while that of the PDP was increased to 197.

Also testifying before the tribunal, Abdullahi Hashim Danlami and Abdullahi Tela Usman, standing for the second respondent, confirmed the evidence tendered before the court, showing that results from Kekura Primary School with Polling Unit Code 005 and Angwan Tobutor with Polling Unit Code 006 were both manipulated in favour of the PDP.

Danlami specifically confirmed that though APC scored 213 votes, with PDP recording 59 votes, the ward collation results showed that the scores for the APC was reduced to 161, while that of the PDP was increased to 111. Usman, on his part, confirmed the evidence in RW40 and RW65, showing that the result of the APC was wrongly entered at the ward level.

That, while the APC scored 213 votes at the polling unit, with PDP having 59 votes, at the ward collation centre, APC was recorded to have scored 161, while PDP got 111 votes. Similarly, Abdullahi Alkassim, who hails from Gangaran Yara, in Keffi Local Government Area, confirmed his statement of oath deposed on May 6 before the tribunal.

He confirmed that results from Alhaji Muntari Ahuwa with Polling Unit Code 021, were manipulated in favour of the PDP at the ward collation centre. Alkassim specifically confirmed that results from RW 39, were manipulated in RW54 in favour of the PDP. Governor Sule further insisted that his votes were shortchanged in Awe, Keffi Local Government Area, when six witnesses of the APC testified at the tribunal.

The first set of witnesses to testify from Awe were Isham Abubakar Dan’azimi from Wuse, Abdullahi Hashimu Danlami from Sabon Garin Awe and Abdullahi Tela Usman from Akiri. Both witnesses told the tribunal that the governorship election in their polling units was conducted peacefully and INEC Presiding Officers used BVAS machines as well as uploaded results of the election to iReV.

However, Isham Abubakar Dan’azimi told the tribunal that APC scored 353 votes, PDP 37 votes at the Wuse TV Centre Polling Unit, but at the Collation of results the Registration Area of Wuse Ward, APC got 193 instead of 353 at the Polling Unit level, while that of PDP was Inflated to 197 votes instead of 37.

The PDP’s lead counsel, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), asked the sixth respondents’ witness, Abdullahi Alkasim, to sign on a plane paper to authenticate the signature on the result sheet of his polling unit and consequently applied to tender it as exhibit, an application that was not objected by the respondents’ counsel.

More witnesses testify

At the resumed sitting of the tribunal, Governor Sule, being the second respondent in the petition, brought additional seven witnesses to testify on oath before the tribunal. The seven witnesses told the tribunal that the APC was short- changed, with the votes scored by the APC at the mentioned polling units reduced, while being entered on Form EC8B.

Led by Dr. Mubarak Adekilekun, appearing for the second respondent, all the witnesses from Keffi, Nasarawa and Toto local government areas, confirmed widespread non-collation of votes scored by the APC as well as the inflation of votes accruing to the PDP. Mukthar Ibrahim, a civil servant from Keffi, confirmed before the tribunal that the APC was shortchanged in Halilu Rahaman Primary School with Polling Unit Code 012, EW36, because his party’s votes was reduced at the point of entry on Form EC8B, EW52.

According to Ibrahim, while APC scored 229 votes and PDP got one vote at the polling unit, at the ward collation centre it was recorded that APC got 224 while PDD has 6. Also testifying, Habibu Ahmed Sarki, confirmed that the APC was short- changed in his Elaita Primary School polling unit with Code 010, in Ara II ward of Nasarawa Local Government Area.

Led by the counsel to APC, Mathew Burkah, the witness confirmed that in Elaita Primary School with Polling Unit Code 010, RW25, APC scored 127, while PDP has 31. However, to his utmost surprise, while entering same results at the Ara II electoral ward, RW45, the APC was recorded to have scored 49 votes, while the PDP got 109.

Similarly, Ibrahim Danlami Umar, Abdulkadir Adamu Jibrin, Iduwa Sabo and Kaika Aminu Egah, all testified on oath, exposing how the APC was shortchanged at the polling units. While Umar confirmed that results recorded on EC8A at his Kwatan Guto Emir of Agatu Palace polling unit 008, RW22, where APC scored 141 votes and PDP 5, is completely at variance with the results recorded on Form EC8B at Guto/ Aisa electoral ward, EW43, where it was said APC scored 83, while PDP got 63.

Abdulkadir Adamu Jibrin, on his part, confirmed that results from Federal Low Cost with Polling Unit Code 007, RW29, Behind Maikankan with Polling Unit Code 012, RW30 and Ahmadiyya Commnity School with Polling Unit Code 023, RW30, all in Nasarawa North electoral ward in Nasarawa Local Government Area, there was non-collation of APC results.

He confirmed that APC scored 192 votes at the Behind Maikankan polling unit but only 156 votes was entered on Form EC8B, EW47. PDP got 17 at the polling unit but was recorded to have scored 53. Highpoint of the proceeding was when the lead counsel to the petitioner (Okutekpa) sought to tender certified true copies of Form EC8As for polling units 007 and 012, which was vehemently objected to by the lead counsels to the first, second and third respondents but which was subsequently admitted as evidence by the tribunal.

INEC’s submission

Throughout the session, counsel to the first respondent (INEC), Ishiaka Mudi Dikko (SAN) confirmed from the witness- es that elections in the areas in dispute were held peacefully and that BVAS was used by INEC officials to authenticate voters and that presiding officers uploaded all the results in dispute on the IREV.

Dikko, while objecting to the admissibility of the document, expressed strong reservations on its authenticity, saying categorically that the document being tendered by the petitioners were not up- loaded from IREV. Speaking further on the matter, Adekilekun (counsel for the governor) confirmed that the documents tendered before the tribunal by the petitioners were never on IREV but mere concoction.

“The purported IREV results are not at all on IREV. We checked them this afternoon but couldn’t find them on IREV. These are merely concocted documents,” he stated. Counsel to the APC, Mathew Burkah, on his part, confirmed from one of the witnesses that on March 18, two separate elections took place namely the House of Assembly and governorship election.

Burkah objected to the admissibility of the documents tendered by the petitioners because, according to him, “I can see House of Assembly written at one corner” of the document. All the first, second and third respondents said they will advance further reasons for their objection in their written addresses.

Earlier, counsel to the second respondent, tendered certified true copies of two more results for Shege Ward I in Toto Local Government Area and EC8B for Gidan Hausa II, as well as receipts of payments for the CTCs. Governor Sule in closing his defence provided more proofs that the APC scores were depleted during the governorship poll in the state.

Sule’s counsel, Adekilekun, made an application to that effect during the Saturday’s sitting of the tribunal. The governor called a total of 21 witnesses who testified in support of his victory at the poll before the tribunal, and consequently applied to close his defence. INEC’s lead counsel, Ishaka Dikko (SAN); Mathew Burkah (SAN) for the APC and the PDP lead counsel, Okutepa (SAN), did not object to the application.

Ruling on the application, chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ajayi, granted the prayer of the governor’s application. Although both parties and their counsels have put forward strong arguments before the tribunal during the legal tussle, it is expected that the tribunal will deliver a judgement that would not only be seen as just, but most acceptable to all parties and the public.

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