Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, has called on all residents of the state to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court, which affirmed his electoral victory.
Governor Sule made the call while speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja on Friday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.
Governor Sule, who was accompanied by two of his predecessors – former governors Umar Tanko Al-Makura, and Abdullahi Adamu, acknowledged the dissenting views of those unhappy with the verdict while praising the justice system in ensuring “fairness without undue interference”.
He further emphasised the importance of unity, calling on all citizens, irrespective of political affiliations, to join hands in building the state.
He highlighted Nasarawa as a significant state in the North-Central region, boasting a commercial quantity discovery of minerals and a flourishing agriculture sector.
He said, “In line with all the judgments that have been going on in the country, I think first and foremost, we must continue to thank Almighty God for giving us the good health and the opportunity to see the kind of democracy we are seeing.
“We must thank Mr. President, and that’s what brought us here to the Villa.
“We thank him for the kind of role he continues to play in all of these, by ensuring that fairness is done without undue interference, allowing the justice system to work the way it’s supposed to. So we must express our appreciation to him for doing all that to the good people of Nigeria.
“As far as we are concerned in Nasarawa State, we have won at the court of appeal unanimously.
“We also won today with the five justices being led by a panel of the highly respected Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun (JSC). So we have to thank Almighty Allah that we also had all the five justices in support of us and that’s why we came.
“All the issues, as far as elections are concerned, are over today. We call on our opponents, without any grudge whatsoever, to come and join with us so we can build our state.
“Nasarawa State is next to Abuja. Nasarawa State is today in the North-Central, the only state that has commercial quantity discovery of oil.
“It is the only state, so far, that is building minerals processing plants. We already have one of the lithium factories almost concluded and as you know, it is also a state that we are very lucky where we have agriculture that is flourishing.
“In fact, on my right hand, is the biggest local farmer that we have in the state and he’s rushing to go back for his harvest because he’s started harvesting.”
The governor also downplayed the attendant protest that greeted the Supreme Court judgement in Lafia, the state capital, on Friday.
He explained that, “Nasarawa is a state where we had over 600,000 votes and we won with over 340,000 votes, so you will know that over 200,000 people did not vote for us.
“So if out of these 200,000 people that did not vote for us and other set of 1,000 people are protesting somewhere, then you will know because it’s a day that not everybody will be happy.
“In every state where the Supreme Court actually passed judgment, in every one of these states, you will find some people are happy and some other people not happy.
“But I think people who understand what democracy is all about will understand that the Supreme Court is the ultimate and is the final and those who appreciate or respect democracy should actually leave it right there because protests or no protest will not change anything, the Supreme Court has already passed his judgment.
“So in our own case, when we lost at the Tribunal, we told everybody, nobody should protest and that’s why nobody protested, but that is the level of maturity that you will see from one political party or the other.
“We are a very mature political party, we’re the ruling party in the country, we’re the ruling party in the state and we’re showing a good example, so that’s why we will not protest,” he added.
