Governorship Election Tribunal: 4 additional witnesses testified, alleges irregularities in Sules’ reelection

By David Okpashi

Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Nasarawa state yesterday received four additional witnesses brought before it by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate , Dr Emmanuel David Ombugadu, challenging the declaration of Governor Abdullahi Sule as winner of the 2023 election.

The PDP party agent alleged while tesifying that the entire result of the Ashige Ward was cancelled at the Lafia LGA Collation Centre where the collation officer allegedly refused to entered the result into the Form EC8C as required by law and excluded in the Form EC8D in the total computation of votes for the declaration of result.

The petitioner called its Polling Unit agent for Alwazan Polling Unit Code 009 as witness number 9.

The witness testified that elections were held in his unit where PDP won and results were uploaded on INEC’s result viewing portal but that they were not computed into the corresponding form EC8B for the Sabon Gari Ward of Doma Local Government Area.

The petitioner’s ward collation agent was also called as a witness in support of the case and he testified as the Petitioners’ witness number 10. In his testimony, he narrated to the tribunal that election results in the identified Polling Unit, Alwazan Mada Polling Unit Code 009 under his ward were not entered in the Form EC8B for the ward as mandated by law.

The petitioner also called its Ashige Ward collation agent as witness number 11, who in his testimony narrated to the tribunal that elections were successfully held in 35 polling units in Ashige Ward where the petitioner won.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) produced additional documents through its representative in pursuant to the subpoena issued by the tribunal and served on INEC upon the application of the petitioners at the resumed hearing.

The documents produced were certified true copies of Polling Units results (forms EC8As) and voters register of identified polling units, which were won by the Petitioners. The documents were all admitted in evidence and accordingly marked as exhibits.

Leading the witnesses at the resumed hearing earlier, the lead counsel to the petitioner , PDP Samuel Okutepa (SAN) called out the witnesses before the tribunal.

After listening to the four witnesses,
chairman of the three-man Governorship Election Petition Panel, Ezekiel Ajayi, adjourned the Tribunal sitting for the continuation of the hearing.