The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday voided the election of Dauda Lawal as the governor of Zamfara State.
A three-member panel of justices led by Justice Omoloye Jombo-Ojo on ordered a rerun of the election in three local governments of Birnin Magaji, Bukuyyum and Maradun.
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In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Sybil Nwaka Gbagi, the appellate court faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s use of IREV for the collation of results when the Supreme Court had ruled that it is not a result collation system but only for public viewing.
The panel unanimously upheld four out of the seven issues for the determination in the appeal brought by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election, Bello Matawalle.
“I hereby declare that the governorship election of 18th of March, 2023 is inconclusive.
“That the return of the first respondent (Lawal) by the third respondent (INEC) is hereby set aside.
“The third respondent (INEC) is hereby directed to hold fresh elections in Maradun Local Government Area and the affected polling units in Birnin Magaji and Bukuyyum local government areas. This is the judgment of this honourable court,” the court held.
Matawalle and the APC had filed the petition following INEC’s declaration of Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election with 377,726 votes as against Matawalle, who polled 311,976 votes.
Matawalle, who was former governor of Zamfara State and current Minister of State for Defence, had contended that election did not hold in many polling units in the three local governments, including 98,506 votes in Maradun, were not counted.
He contended that Lawal was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast in the election and that the conduct was not in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
But the Zamfara State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal dismissed the petition.
Efforts to speak to the Zamfara governor and those closed to him to hear about their next line of action were not successful.
