Nasarawa Guber: Appeal Court reserves judgement on Sule’s petition

By Vivian Okejeme Abuja

The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, has reserved judgment in an appeal instituted by Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Sule was at the appellate court, contesting against the majority decision by a tribunal nullifying his election, in favour of David Ombugadu of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP).
A three-member panel of justices headed by Justice U. Onyemenam told parties involved that the date for judgment will be communicated to them.
In the actual proceedings, Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Sule who filed five processes to challenge the appeal urged the Court to dismiss the judgment of the Tribunal and allow the appeal of his client.
Olanipekun argued that the Tribunal refused to take the submissions of their witnesses during the Tribunal hearing and that data from the BVAS tendered to the Tribunal were merely dumped and without been considered as evidence.
In his response, counsel to Ombugadu, Kanu Agabi SAN, and the PDP urged the court to dismiss the appeal stating that their evidence are merely documentary.
On the issue of BVAS, Agabi argued that it was sufficiently demonstrated in the Tribunal as demanded by law, with the print out from the machine shown, against the argument that they were merely dumped without being analysed.
Agabi who referred the court to the judgment of the Tribunal argued that in delivering judgment, the lower court painstakingly gave a breakdown of how it arrived at its decision.