Cheke Emmanuel 
The Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia has reserved judgment at a later date in the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr David Emmanuel Ombugadu challenging the victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule in the March 18 governorship election.
Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi while reserving judgement till a later date having listened to arguments adduced by counsels to the petitioner and respondents’ counsels and adoption of final their written addresses, informed that judgement date would be communicated to counsels.
In his submission counsel to the petitioner, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), urged the tribunal to annul the governorship election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act and declare the petitioner and candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr David Emmanuel Ombugadu winner of the election.
He also argued further that there was no relationship between the votes in the IREV and the final result that was declared after the election.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. David Ombugadu had the highest number of votes cast in the election based on the records in the IREV and the information from the BVAS machines that were used at various polling units.
He argued further that results from the polling units (Form EC8As) were the original, certified documents that should guide the tribunal’s decision, highlighting discrepancies between Form EC8As and other forms and called on the tribunal to focus on the documents themselves rather than relying on witnesses and urged the tribunal to declare the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the election.
Earlier, counsel to the first respondent, Isiaka Dikko (SAN) queried the credibility of the petitioner’s claims, arguing that the figures presented by the petitioners were unrealistic and lacked substantial evidence to support the claim.
He urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitioner’s petition for lacking in merit.
Counsel to the second Respondent (Governor Abdullahi Sule), Chief Wale Olanipekun (SAN), raised objections to various aspects of the petitioner’s case and appealed to the tribunal to dismiss the petition, arguing that many pieces of evidence brought by the petitioners did not align with the law.
Olanipekun emphasized that the petitioners failed to provide proper witness dispositions and questioned the admissibility of the BVAS data. He pointed out that the petitioners never mentioned any polling units where they secured 25% of the votes.
In his submission, counsel to the third respondent ( All Progressive Congress (APC), Dr., Hassan Liman, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitioner’s petition for lacking in merit, stressing that the claim by the petitioner were allegations other than facts.
New Telegraph reports that there were arguments and counterarguments between the petitioner’s counsel and the respondent’s counsels, but records from the panellists settled the arguments as they referred to the record book kept by the tribunal during proceedings.
