From Esther Akaa, Lafia
The Nasarawa Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Lafia on Thursday reserved judgement in the petition filed by Dr. David Ombugadu, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) candidate in the March 18 governorship poll in Nasarawa State.
The Voice reports Ombugadu is challenging the victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress ( APC).
The Chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, reserved the judgment after counsels to the petitioner and respondents adopted their final written addresses on Thursday.
He said that the tribunal would communicate the date for the judgment to the parties through their counsels.
Earlier, counsel to the petitioner, Kanu Agabi (SAN),told the tribunal that he had adopted all the arguments in his written address.
Agabi urged the tribunal to annul the Nasarawa State governorship election for non compliance with the Electoral Act and declare the candidate of PDP as the real winner of the election.
He also explained that there was no relationship between the votes in the IREV and the final result that was declared.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the PDP candidate had the highest number of votes cast in the election based on the records in the IREV and the information from the BVAS machines that were used at various polling units.
On their parts, counsels to the INEC, APC, and Governor Sule, Mr Isiaka Dikko (SAN), Hassan Liman (SAN) and Wole Olanikpekun (SAN), respectively, adopted their final written addresses and called on the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit.
Counsel to APC, Olanikpekun argued that the petitioner had dumped BVAS machines and IREV records at the tribunal without first displaying what was in them.
According to him, the petitioner merely showed the tribunal the records from the IREV and BVAS machines, not displaying them for everyone to see.
He urged the panel to reject the petition on the grounds that the petitioner had not provided any supporting evidence.
