S’Court reserves judgments in Nasarawa, Kebbi states Gov’ship election
By Andrew Orolua
The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, reserved judgment in the fierce legal battle on the governorship election in Nasarawa State between Governor Abdullahi Sule of All Progressives Congress (APC) and Hon Emmanuel David Ombugadu of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The apex court also reserved judgment in Kebbi State governorship election dispute between governor Nasir Idris of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Aminu Bande of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
At Tuesday’s proceedings, lead counsel to PDP and its governorship candidate, Kanu Agabi (SAN) appealed to the apex court to set aside the November 23 judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld Sule as the lawfully elected governor.
Agabi, a former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice prayed the panel of justices to restore the October 2, 2023 judgment of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that declared PDP and Ombugadu the winner of March 18, 2023 election.
The senior lawyer said the Court of Appeal erred in the judgement and unjustly nullified the Tribunal’s judgment and unjustly declared Sule as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.
Agabi urged the Supreme Court to allow the votes of Nasarawa state people to count by declaring PDP and Ombugadu as winners as rightly done by the Tribunal.
However, Governor, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and (APC) asked the apex court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit.
APC lawyers, led by Akin Olujinmi (SAN) who also served as Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice asked the apex court to carefully looked into the cited authorities to back up their request for dismissal of the case.
The election dispute in kebbi state is between governor Nasir Idris of the All progressives Congress (APC) and Aminu Bande of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Bande and the PDP are praying to set aside the judgement of Court of Appeal and nullify the declaration of Governor Idris as winner of the election.
The appellant argued that the allegations of forgery of testimonial brought against the deputy governor of the state, Abubakar Tafida has been established as required by law therefore the votes accredited to Gov Idris and APC are invalid . On his part ,Governor Idris said the appellant woeful failed to prove their case therefore the appeal should be dismissed.
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Recall that Idris, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), scored 409,225 votes to beat Bande, who got 360,940 votes at the election.
A five-man panel led by justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun reserved the judgment after listening to the parties. She said that the date of judgment will be communicated to the parties.
