Court of Appeal sitting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja has declared
the governorship election held in Zamfara State on March 18 inconclusive.
The three-member panel led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, in a unanimous decision, nullified the declaration of Governor Dauda 3 of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.
The judgement followed an appeal that was brought before the court by the immediate past governor of the state and Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.
Matawalle was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.
Delivering the lead judgement, Justice Sybil Nwaka 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 Local Government Areas are Maradun Birnin-Magaji and Bukkuyum.
According to the Appellate Court, 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
Author: Maureen Ikpeama