October 15, (THEWILL) – Almost two weeks after he was sacked by the state’s election tribunal, Abdullahi Sule, the Governor of Nasarawa State has blamed two Christian judges for his removal. The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal headed by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi nullified the election and declared David Ombugadu, the Peoples Democratic Party flag candidate, as the lawfully elected governor of the State.
One of the members of the three-man panel, Justice Chiemelie Onaga, agreed with the judgement after himself and Ajayi went through results of the various polling units and forms EC 8A provided by Ombugadu, which proved to the tribunal that the results were manipulated in favour of the All Progressives Congress. They admitted that based on the proof from the various polling units before the tribunal, Ombugadu had the majority of valid votes at the election. They therefore ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to withdraw the Certificate of Return previously issued to Sule and issue a new one to Ombugadu.
However, the third member of the panel, Justice Ibrahim Mashi, dismissed the petition filed by the PDP candidate for lacking in merit. He said the petitioner failed to prove his case and upheld INEC’s declaration of Sule as winner. But Sule accused Ajayi and Onaga of manipulating the tribunal judgement in favour of Ombugadu and sacking him after he fraudulently got declared by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Professor Tanko Ishaya.
Sule said that the only Muslim among the judges upheld his elections while the other two Christian judges conspired to remove him from office due to religious sentiments. In other words, he meant that judgement shouldn’t be given to deserving people but only based on religious sentiments. In a bid to buttress his point, he told the story of how he refused to be swayed by religion when it was in his power to do the bidding of his fellow Muslim faithfuls.
He recalled that during the 2023 general election in the state, he was advised to shut down Goshen City, the mission headquarters of the Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel in Masaka, Nasarawa State because its pastor and the first vice president of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Olatunji Abioye, had asked Christians to vote for faith.
“Why can’t a Christian be a governor in Nasarawa State. If anybody tells you now that there is no religion in politics, they are deceiving you. Don’t hide it, vote for your faith. Till tomorrow, I will vote for my faith. I won’t vote for someone who will slaughter me,” he claimed Abioye said.
Sule maintained that contrary to people’s advice, he refused to order the arrest of the Abioye or to check whether the church pays its tax.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
