Tribunal judgment: Engineer Sule sues for calm, directs legal team to appeal ruling

Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has called on his supporters to remain calm as he directed his legal team to appeal the ruling of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upturned his election.

Engineer Sule made the call while addressing a mammoth crowd of supporters that turned up at the Government House shortly after the tribunal gave its judgement.

It would be recalled that the gubernatorial candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu has filed a petition before the tribunal challenging the declaration of Engineer Sule as duly elected Governor by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the March 18th, 2023 governorship election.

The tribunal in it judgement on Monday, ruled in a split decision with two members of the three-man panel deciding in favour of the PDP candidate.

Addressing the crowd of supporters, Engineer Sule said he will appeal the lower court decision, urging the people of the state who turned up enmass to vote for him, to remain calm.

According to him, he still remains Governor until the final determination of the case at the Supreme Court.

“I remain the Governor until I appeal, and the law permits us to appeal again. And no matter what happens at that moment, I still remain the Governor until we go to the Supreme Court.

“For that reason, I want to first and foremost, thank our numerous supporters, especially our major stakeholders and our youths and especially those women who are not able to be part of this but who stand out there throughout the trial, all our security agencies, the various men who continue to stand under the rain just to support us. I don’t have the opportunity to see them directly, but I want you to please use the opportunity to thank them for their support.

“I want to thank the good people of Nasarawa State who voted for us to here. For some of us who may feel bad today about what has happened, which is just a temporary setback. As the Governor of the state, I am calling on us to remain calm. Whatever has happened has happened. There is no amount of riot or unrest that can change what happened today. There is no need for any protest.

“We still believe in the judiciary, and that is why we are going to appeal the case. I am hoping that most of you on social media should not continue to respond to what the other people are saying or will say. If you are responding to what they are saying, then you are doing what they want,” he stated.

The Governor stated his resolve to continue with his development programmes as if nothing has happened.

“As far as I am concerned, I am going to continue with my work from tomorrow as if nothing has ever happened. As far as we are concerned, all our development programmes that we already set up, we would continue with our development programmes,” he added.

Engineer Sule directed his legal team to comence the fireworks and to appeal the judgement of the tribunal.

“Those who would take the responsibility of the appeal are the legal people. They should continue with their work. I am calling on the good people of Nasarawa State to understand that this first judgment is the trubunal. It’s not the judgment of the Supreme Court. Therefore, don’t bother yourself getting angry or getting upset with anybody. Look at the good aspect of the judgement, that God Almighty has given us the chance to do the best that we can for this state, and He just asked us to wake up from sleep,” he stated.