The Court of Appeal sitting in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on Thursday, declared the governorship election that was held in Zamfara State on March 18, 2023 inconclusive.
The three-member panel led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, in a unanimous decision, nullified the declaration of Governor Dauda Lawal 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, Bello Matawalle, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.
Bello Matawalle is now the Minister of State for Defence.
Reading 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.
He listed the affected Local Government Areas as: 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.
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