The Court of Appeal has fixed Wednesday, November 15 for hearing in the appeal instituted by Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State who is seeking to upturn the split decision of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in favour of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu.
This was contained in the notice of hearing issued to the parties in the case by the Electronic Desk Officer of the court, Nasiru Alhassan, yesterday.
According to the notice, hearing in the case will commence by 9:00 am at the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.
Governor Sule had approached the Court of Appeal challenging the position of the governorship petition tribunal on his reelection. Governor Sule filed the Notice of Appeal through his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) on Sunday, October, 15.
The governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Lafia had in a split judgement recently declared the PDP candidate, David Ombugadu, winner of the March 18 governorship election.
A dissenting ruling by one of the three judges however, upheld the election of Governor Sule.
Governor Sule rejected the majority judgement read by the tribunal chairman, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, describing its position as unmeritorious and devoid of evidential support base or pillars, even as vowed to appeal the decision.
In the Notice of Appeal he listed 27 grounds of appeals for determination by the appellate court.
Among others, he questioned the trial tribunal jurisdictional competence to order the immediate swearing in Ombugadu as the governor, pointing out that not being the final court, the tribunal lacks the requisite competence to do so.
He also averred that the majority decision of the lower tribunal in declaring the return of PDP’s Ombugadu failed to be bound by the provisions of Section 179 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution as Amended and Section 66 of the Electoral Act 2022.
He equally argued that there was no evidence before the tribunal demonstrating the percentage of votes scored by Ombugadu vis a vis the total votes cast in two-third of the 13 Local Government Areas the State to satisfy the provisions of Section 179(2) of the 1999 Constitution as Amended
Sule, therefore, urged the Appellate Court to set aside the decision of the lower court and affirm his election victory as declared by INEC.
Joined in the appeal were Ombugadu, PDP, INEC and the APC as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents respectively.
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