***Fixes July 13th for next sitting
From Daniel Abel, Lafia
The Nasarawa State governorship election petition tribunal has admitted four witness from the petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Governorship Candidate Hon David Ombugadu.
The PDP presented only four out of the nine witnesses scheduled to appeared at the resumed sitting
The four witnesses from the petitioner, Hon Ombugadu, the governorship candidate and the PDP presented their evidences under cross examination by the respondents, as all evidences were admitted by the court.
The Legal fireworks resumed at the election petition Tribunal for Nasarawa State following the petition filed by the governorship candidate of PDP, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, challenging the declaration of Abdullahi Sule as the winner of the March 18th governorship election in Nasarawa State.
The three-man panel led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi at the resumed hearing on the petition listened to arguments and counter-arguments canvassed by counsels to Governor Sule, the All progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent national Electoral Commission, (INEC).
The argument centered on the admissibility or otherwise of documents and witnesses tendered and called by the petitioner.
At the sitting, the petitioner through his counsels led by M.J Numa tendered documents including voter registers, list of adhoc staff, result sheets from several Local Government Areas, among others, to substantiate it’s claims.
Counsels to the respondents however objected to the admissibility of the documents, but reserved their arguments till the final addresses.
Ruling on the issue, Justice Ajayi withheld ruling on the propriety of the admissibility of the documents or otherwise but allowed the petitioners to tender evidences brought before the tribunal.
Witnesses were also called by the petitioners from Lafia and Toto local government councils to substantiate the allegation of rigging which were however objected by the counsels to the defendants as they reserved their argument to a later date.
Witnesses to the PDP and it’s candidate, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, Ehaluka Aaron, Samule Dakwe and Ibrahim Umar Othman who were PDP agents during the election identified their deposition and told the court that they signed the documents under duress.
“We were made to sign the documents under duress”, the PDP agents alleged.
It will be recalled that Ombugadu who was also a governorship candidate in the 2019 governorship election had approached the Tribunal to upturn the declaration of Sule as the elected governor of Nasarawa State, citing irregularities in the conduct of the polls.
Ombugadu had prayed the Tribunal to declare him winner of the March 18th election based on evidences he is presenting before the court in accordance with the 1999 constitution as amended and the Electoral Act 2022.
Meanwhile, the three man panel of justices adjourned sitting to 13th of July 2023 for continuation of hearing of cases.