Appeal Court declares Zamfara election inconclusive
The Court of Appeal in Abuja declared the March 18 governorship election in Zamfara State inconclusive.
The three-member panel led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi unanimously overturned the return of Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the governorship election on Thursday.
Justice Sybil Nwaka, who read the lead judgement, directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold new elections in three Local Government Areas of the state where elections had not previously been held or where results from various polling units had not been tabulated.
The affected LGAs are Maradun, Birnin-Magaji and Bukkuyum.
The court ruled that INEC erred in relying on information collected from its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) platform to compile the final governorship election results.
The decision came in response to an appeal filed by the state’s immediate past governor, Bello Matawalle, who was the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election.
Matawalle currently serves as the Minister of State for Defence under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.