Ismail Abdulazeez Mantu Reporting
Abuja, Nigeria
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved judgment in an appeal brought by Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the majority decision by a tribunal nullifying his election, in favour of David Ombugadu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A three-member panel of justices headed by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam told parties involved that the date for judgment will be communicated.
In the day’s proceedings, counsel to Governor Sule, Wole Olanipekun, who filed five processes to challenge the appeal, urged the court to dismiss the judgment of the tribunal and allow the appeal of his client.
Olanipekun argued that the tribunal refused to take the submissions of their witnesses during the tribunal hearing and that data from the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) tendered to the tribunal, were merely dumped without being considered as evidence.
After adopting his processes, counsel to Ombugadu and the PDP, Kanu Agabi, urged the court to dismiss the appeal against the tribunal judgment stating that their evidence was merely documentary.
On the issue of BVAS, Agabi argued that it was sufficiently demonstrated in the tribunal as demanded by law, with the printout from the machine shown, against the argument that they were merely dumped without being analysed.
Agabi who referred the court to the judgment of the tribunal argued that in delivering judgment, the lower court painstakingly gave a breakdown of how it arrived at its decision.