Appeal Court Sacked PDP Governor and Declared Election Inconclusive.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has made a decisive ruling on the Zamfara State governorship election held on March 18, declaring it inconclusive.
In a unanimous decision delivered by the three-member panel led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi on Thursday, the return of Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the poll was nullified.
Justice Sybil Nwaka, who read the lead judgment, directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organize a fresh election in three Local Government Areas of the state where elections were either not conducted or results from various polling units were not counted. The affected LGAs are Maradun, Birnin-Magaji, and Bukkuyum.
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The court’s ruling criticized INEC’s reliance on information obtained from its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal for collating the final result of the governorship election. The judges held that this approach was flawed.
The judgement came in response to an appeal brought before the court by the immediate past governor of the state, Bello Matawalle, who contested as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election. Notably, Matawalle was subsequently appointed as the Minister of State for Defence by President Bola Tinubu.
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The decision sets the stage for a new chapter in Zamfara’s political landscape, with the prospect of fresh elections in the specified Local Government Areas. The unfolding developments add an element of uncertainty to the political future of Zamfara State, as stakeholders await further directives from INEC on the timeline for the rerun election.
