BREAKING: Appeal Court declares Zamfara governorship election inconclusive

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday, declared the Zamfara state governorship election inconclusive.

The Zamfara State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had, on September 18, affirmed the election of Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Governor of the state, having dismissed the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Bello Matawalle, challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election for lacking in merit.

The chairman of the three-member panel, Justice Cordelia Ogadi, who read the unanimous judgment, held that Matawalle, who is now Minister of State for Defence, did not prove his allegation of wrongful collation of elections results, exclusion of results for the Maradun Local Government Area (LGA) and the election not being conducted in some wards in the state.

Justice Ogadi also held that the petitioners failed to prove the claim that INEC did not comply with electoral rules while conducting the election.

The tribunal, in the judgement, awarded a N500,000 fine against Matawalle.

Dissatisfied with the judgement of the trial Tribunal, Matawalle filed a 17-grounds of appeal before the Court of Appeal, praying for the setting aside of the judgement of the lower court.

The appellants said the lower Tribunal erred in law and occasion a serious miscarriage of Justice when in arriving at a decision to dismiss their petition challenging the declaration of Dauda Lawal as the winner of the Zamfara state governorship election.

The appellants said the Tribunal erred in law to have struck out some paragraphs of their petition on the ground that, they were abandoned and to have held that the evidence of their witnesses were hearsay and refused to give consideration to them.

In a unanimous judgement of the three-member panel of Justices, the appellate court held that the governorship election held in Zamfara State on March 18, 2023 was inclusive and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election in Maradun Local Government Area and some polling units in Birnin Magaji and Bukyun Local Government Areas of the state.

According to the court, INEC did not count the election results from the Local Government Areas but relied on the data from its iReV, which the court held that it is not a collation platform but made for the public to view the results of the election.

The court held that the appellants were able to discharge the burden of prove placed on them by the law and resolved issues six and seven raised in the appeal in their favour against the respondents.

INEC had declared Lawal winner of the Zamfara State Governorship election having scored the lawful majority votes of 377,726 to beat Matawalle, who scored only 311,976 to emerge the first runner-up in the election.

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