The Court of Appeal in Abuja has declared as inconclusive the Zamfara State governorship election of March 18 and annulled the victory of current Governor Dauda Lawal-Dare of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner.
The judgement followed an appeal by the immediate past Governor of the state, Bello Matawalle, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, who is currently the Minister of State for Defence.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi nullified the return of PDP’s Governor Dauda Lawal that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared as the winner of the governorship poll.
Reading the lead judgement, Justice Sybil Nwaka ordered the commission to conduct fresh elections in three local government areas of the state, where elections had not been held previously or where results from various polling units were not counted.
Of the state’s 14, the LGAs ordered to undergo rerun elections are: Maradun, Birnin-Magaji and Bukyun.
The court held that it was wrong for INEC to rely on information it obtained from the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in Abuja, to collate the final result of the governorship election.
The verdict comes six months after the Zamfara governorship election in March 18, 2023.
Lawal, of the opposition PDP, was declared winner of the governorship election, with a total of 377,726 votes.
Seeking a second term, APC’s Mattawalle scored 311,976 votes.
He petitioned the tribunal and accused INEC of subverting his victory at the poll by failing to include the results of some ward areas.
But in an earlier ruling on September 18, the Zamfara Election Petitions Tribunal held that the petition was devoid of merit and upholding Lawal’s victory.
The tribunal awarded N500,000 as fine against the petitioners.
Subsequently, Mattawalle challenged the decision of the lower court at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.