By Musa Baba Adamu
The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in Nasarawa State has queried the amount of votes allocated to Governor Sule of the APC in the last election.
In a statement by Ibrahim Hamza, Public Relations Officer of the PDP, Nasarawa State, the party respects the right of Gov. Sule to appeal the tribunal judgement, which nullified his declaration as governor of the state and declared David Ombugadu as the lawful winner.
The party, however, emphasized the need to clarify reasons for the appeal, especially, as it concerns the alleged discrepancies in the votes counted.
He said: “As firm believers in our democratic process, we respect the right of AA Sule to appeal the judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which nullified his declaration as Governor by the Independent National Electoral Commission and returned Dr. David Ombugadu as the duly elected governor of Nasarawa State.
“Whereas AA Sule celebrated and accepted the declaration by INEC that he won the Nasarawa Governorship election with 347,209 votes, he is now banking on the Minority Judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal, which gave him 295,402 votes as the basis for his appeal.
“It will be recalled that INEC in March 2023 claimed that AA Sule won the governorship election with 347,209 votes and it allocated 283,016 votes to Dr. Ombugadu of the PDP.
“But in his Minority Judgement, Justice Ibrahim I. Mashi ruled that AA Sule scored only 295,402 votes as against the inflated votes of 347,209 freely given to him by INEC. The same Minority Judgement said Dr. Ombugadu scored 291, 603 as against the suppressed votes of 283,016 allocated to him by INEC,” Ibrahim noted.
The PRO questioned where INEC got the 51,897 votes they allocated to Gov. Sule to declare him governor of the state going by the minority judgement.
He alleged that Governor Sule was distancing himself from the initial 48,008 votes given to him by INEC which declared him winner and telling the whole world he won the election with just 3,799 and no longer with 51,807 which he had accepted and celebrated.
The PDP maintained that, “What AA Sule and his cohorts are now telling the world is that he won the election with the margin of 3,799 and not the 51,807 votes, which he had earlier accepted and celebrated as the proof of his popularity in Nasarawa State.
“What is playing out now based on the Minority Judgement is that AA Sule is distancing himself from the 48,008 votes donated to him by INEC.
Hamza asserted that the Minority Judgement calls to question what AA Sule is actually appealing against when it is obvious that fictitious votes were deliberately allocated to him by INEC to enable him emerge as the winner.
He emphasized that INEC, as the body responsible for overseeing elections, holds a sacred duty to ensure that the will of the people is accurately protected and that any irregularities or discrepancies in the vote count must be thoroughly investigated to maintain the trust of the electorate.
“While it is the right of every citizen to seek legal recourse, we believe it is essential to address the lack of substantive grounds required to warrant the appeal of the Tribunal’s ruling, which will ultimately lead to its dismissal by the appeal court.
“We are sure that any appeal filed by AA Sule will lack substantial grounds to challenge the results of the election, as the people of Nasarawa State across all tribes and religions, overwhelmingly voted for Dr. Ombugadu in the governorship election”. He concluded.
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