Nasarawa guber: Tension grips Gov. Sule, as tribunal admits Ombugadu’s 4 witnesses

Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State was on Thursday became apprehensive the State Election Petition Tribunal entertaining the case between him and the Peoples Democratic Party admitted four witnesses produced by the petitioner, Hon. David Ombugadu.

Ombugadu had petitioned the Tribunal over the governorship election, he believed to have won, but was manipulated in favour of the All Progressives Congress Abdullahi Sule and as the case progresses, four witnesses who appeared out of nine scheduled to appear were all admitted by the Tribunal.

At the Government House, Lafia, the governor was not in a good mood to attend to visitors who have been waiting to see him as he was monitoring the proceedings, according to a source.

The Peoples Democratic Party presented their evidences to the Tribunal under cross examination by the respondents and all evidences were admitted by the court.

The petitioner is seeking that he should be declared winner of the governorship election which held on March 18, 2023.

The Justice Ezekiel Ajayi-led three man panel resumed sitting on the petition, listened to arguments and counter-arguments canvassed by counsels to Governor Sule, the All progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent national Electoral Commission, (INEC).

The argument centered on the admissibility or otherwise of documents and witnesses tendered and called by the petitioner.
At the sitting, the petitioner through his counsels led by M.J Numa tendered documents including voter registers, list of ad-hoc staff, result sheets from several Local Government Areas, among others, to substantiate it’s claims.

Counsels to the respondents however objected to the admissibility of the documents, but reserved their arguments till the final addresses.

Ruling on the issue, Justice Ajayi withheld ruling on the propriety of the admissibility of the documents or otherwise but allowed the petitioners to tender evidences brought before the tribunal.

Witnesses were also called by the petitioners from Lafia and Toto local government councils to substantiate the allegation of rigging which were however objected by the counsels to the defendants as they reserved their argument to a later date.

Witnesses to the PDP and it’s candidate, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, Ehaluka Aaron, Samule Dakwe and Ibrahim Umar Othman who were PDP agents during the election identified their deposition and told the court that they signed the documents under duress.
“We were made to sign the documents under duress”, the PDP agents alleged.

It will be recalled that Ombugadu who was also a governorship candidate in the 2019 governorship election had approached the Tribunal to upturn the declaration of Sule as the elected governor of Nasarawa State, citing irregularities in the conduct of the polls.

Ombugadu had prayed the Tribunal to declare him winner of the March 18th election based on evidences he is presenting before the court in accordance with the 1999 constitution as amended and the Electoral Act 2022.

Meanwhile, the three man panel of justices adjourned sitting to 13th of July 2023 for continuation of hearing of cases.