The appellate court annulled the victory of Lawal and ordered a rerun of the election in three Zamfara LGAs namely Maradun, Birnin Magaji and Bukuyun.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has ordered a rerun of the governorship election in three local government areas of Zamfara State.
The court’s judgement on Thursday effectively removed Governor Dauda Lawal from his position.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel held that it was wrong for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rely on information it obtained from its Result Viewing (IReV) portal to collate the final result of the governorship election.
INEC had declared Lawal winner of the March 18 governorship election.
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According to the commission, Bello Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was defeated with over 65,000 votes. The electoral body credited Lawal with 377,726 votes, while Matawalle was said to have scored 311,976 votes.
Matawalle then challenged the victory of Lawal who ran under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Matawalle, now Minister of State for Defence, took the case to the appellate court after a tribunal upheld Lawal’s victory.
On Thursday, the appellate court annulled the victory of Lawal and ordered a rerun of the election in three Zamfara LGAs namely Maradun, Birnin Magaji and Bukuyun.
