Appeal Court declares Zamfara governorship election inconclusive, orders rerun

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has declared the March 18 Zamfara governorship election inconclusive.

Making the judgement on Thursday, the court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a rerun of the election.

This came after a three-member panel of justices unanimously nullified the return of Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the gubernatorial election.

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The immediate past governor of the state, Bello Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress, had lodged an appeal before the court to challenge the governor’s victory.

According to the lead judgement read by Justice Sybil Nwaka, the Zamfara State election petitions tribunal did not consider the evidence provided by the appellants, the APC.

The judges also ruled that it was wrong for INEC to rely solely on information it obtained from its IReV portal to collate the final result of the governorship election.

The court also rejected the results for Maradun Local Government submitted by INEC and the APC.