Appeal Court sacks Zamfara Governor Lawal, declares guber election inconclusive

.Orders rerun in 3 LGAs

.Anxiety as Appeal Court rules on Kano governorship election today

Chigozie Ikpo, Abuja

The Court of Appeal, Abuja has declared the March 18 gubernatorial election that produced Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Governor of Zamfara State, as inconclusive.
The Court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct rerun elections in three local governments of the state.
The Appellant Court set aside the judgement of the tribunal which dismissed the appeal filed by candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bello Matawalle challenging the outcome of the election.
Delivering the unanimous judgement on behalf of the three-member panel of Appellant Court, Justice Sybil Nwaka held that the appeal is meritorious.
Justice Nwaka held that the tribunal erred when it failed to thoroughly examine the evidence presented before it by the appellant adding that it was wrong to strike out several paragraphs of the appellants appeal for abandonment of pleadings.
The Court held that the appellant was able to prove allegations of wrongful collation of results in Maradun Local Government, Area where they claimed to have polled over 98,000 votes.
The Court however, said the parties failed to produce authenticated results for the affected local government as the duplicate copy submitted by the appellant was invisible while the one submitted by INEC in defence was mutilated.
The Court therefore ordered a fresh election in Maradun Local Government Area of the state as well as some polling units in Birnin-Magaji and Bukyun Local Government Areas.
The Court held that whereas the margin of lead between the winner of the election and the runner-up is about 65,000, it is not sufficient to declare the 1st respondent the winner of the election
“The March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election is inclusive and the return of the first respondent has been set aside”, Justice Nwaka held.
Furthermore, the court reversed the order of N500,000 cost placed on the appellants by the tribunal.
Recall that the Zamfara State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Sokoto had on September 18, 2023, affirmed the election of Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governor of the state.
The tribunal 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.
It also awarded a N500,000 fine to the petitioner, Matawalle.
In a lead judgement read by Justice Cordelia Ogadi, she said the petitioner 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.
The tribunal also said the petitioner failed to prove his claim of non-compliance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the Electoral Act 22 and corrupt way of conducting the election.
Meanwhile, the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has fixed Friday, November 17, 2023, for judgment in the Kano State governorship election dispute between Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, and Nasiru Gawuna of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The judgment will be delivered by 10 a.m. today.
Recall that the court had on November 6, 2023, reserved judgment in the appeal by the state governor, Yusuf, who is challenging his removal by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The tribunal on September 20 nullified Yusuf’selection by declaring 165, 663 of his votes invalid.