A coalition of Civil Society Groups that observed the March 2023 elections in Nasarawa State has condemned the judgment of the election petition tribunal that sacked the incumbent governor through a split decision of two to one.
The group in a statement signed by its leader Ogbu Francisca Esq and Director of Information Abdul Suleiman said as much as it is not preempting the matter before the Court of Appeal it believes that accepting the judgment as delivered by the lead Justices in their majority will amount to accepting injustice against Governor A A Sule and the majority of those that cast their votes for him.
The statement wondered why the two tribunal judges who voted for the sack of Governor A A Sule chose to admit submissions of witnesses even after the statutory 21days required for submissions to be made in election tribunal matters.
The statement said it was wrong for the majority judges to have admitted subpoenaed witnesses without statement on oath. The group said the judges who took the majority position failed to adhere to the position of the law which states that ‘where there are divergent and or conflict decision of the court of Appeal, the latter decision prevails’. It said the tribunal is bound by the decision in the Peter Obi case as delivered by the presidential election tribunal which posited that subpoenaed witnesses are not witnesses of the court but witnesses of the petitioners who ordinarily are not adverse parties but hiding under the cloak of subpoenaed witnesses to surreptitiously amend the petition of the petitioners an action that amounts to shifting the post in the middle of a match. The tribunal the group said, should have carefully examined the place of every subpoenaed witnesses with a view to unveiling the ploy to belatedly introduce friendly witnesses.
On the issue of inadmissibility of documents tendered through witnesses who are not the makers and the inadmissibility of oral evidence of the said witnesses, the group said that only makers of the documents can tender same. Furthermore, the group said polling agents and supervisors who are agents of political parties in line with Electoral Act as approved by Residential Electoral Commissioner are the only competent agents to testify as witness of their political party. It said the polling agents and supervisors presented by the petitioners as witnesses failed to show that they are the real polling/ coalition agents of the petitioners as against the provisions of the Electoral Act which the majority judgment of the tribunal failed to consider and expunged.
On the point of objection to tendering and admissibility of documents used in the election of Nasarawa State House of Assembly elections the group said that the majority judgment of the tribunal erred in considering the documents due to it’s irrelevance to the governorship election and such admissibility runs short of the intendment of the Evidence Act.
The group also faults the majority judgment of the Tribunal in the area of tendering of duplicate copies from the bar by parties who are not the makers of the said documents neither did they show exceptional circumstances warranting the tendering of such documents by them.
On the issue of capacity and competence of petitioners’ witness to tender documents, the group faulted the majority judgment on the ground that being aware that the witnesses admitted that they are not accredited agents with nothing to show in line with the Electoral Act to that effect, the majority judgment shouldn’t have stood. It said going ahead to admit such documents caused serious injustice to the respondent.
The group said on the issue of substantive petition that the second respondent was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast at the governorship election of March 2023 and that the 1st and 3rd respondents have no replies before the tribunal as a result of wrong ful insertion of the name Sule Audu Adamu, the group faults the decision of the majority judgment which is in favour of the petitioners whereupon such judgment failed to consider the fact that the subpoenaed witnesses whose testimony are incompetent and the other witnesses who are polling unit but failed to comply with the Electoral Act makes it very unreliable for the testimony to be used as a basis for upholding the victory of the petitioners as the law is trite that the petitioners must win on the strength of his case and not on the weakness of the second respondents case which is unacceptable.
On the petitioners area of complaints, review and findings, the group said having gone through the evidences laid and judgment thereto of both majority and minority decisions state further that the inability of the petitioner to call polling unit agents in proof of their case for restoration of the alleged votes of 4,488 for the petitioner makes it imperative for the non restoration of such votes. Something which the majority decisions failed to consider but went ahead to uphold same.
In the other issue that the first and third respondents have no replies since they placed the name of one Sule Audu Adamu in their replies to the petition, the group said the majority judgment failed to consider that such issue is a mere misnomer which is not fatal to the defense of the first and third respondents and that the petitioner is not in anyway misled by the fact that Sule Audu Adamu is not the same person as Sule Audu Alhaji it said it is a misnomer which does not in anyway affect the substance of the case. It said the petitioner who failed to raise the issue at the preliminary stage waved his right to objecting to the use of such name.
The group condemned the resort to ethnic and religious politics by the PDP while also calling on the people of Nasarawa State to remain calm since the governor has appealed the judgment.
“The Coalition of Civil Society Groups condemns the actions of the opposition party in the state rather than making a mountain out of a mole hill of the tribunal judgment, they should rather wait till the matter is settled finally by the apex court. It is also important that they refrain from inciting the public through their supporters. Taking certain actions like the purported raising of transition committees and bringing ethnic and religious sentiments into politics will definitely backfire. They need to understand that there is the need fir the state to be peaceful and orderly for the general good of the people ” the statement added.
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