Court Declares Zamfara Gov Poll Inconclusive, Orders Rerun In Three LGAs
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has declared inconclusive the governorship election that was held in Zamfara State on March 18.
On Thursday, the three-member panel presided over by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi unanimously decided to annul the declaration of Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the victor of the governorship election.
Justice Sybil Nwaka, who read the lead judgement, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election 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.
The affected LGAs are Maradun, Birnin-Magaji, and Bukkuyum.
The court held that it was wrong for INEC to rely on information it obtained from its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal to collate the final result of the governorship election.
The judgement followed an appeal that was brought before the court by the immediate past governor of the state, Bello Matawalle, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.
Matawalle was later appointed by President Bola Tinubu as the Minister of State for Defence.
More to follow….