Court Sacks Zamfara Gov. Dauda Lawal, 8 Months After Election | READ DETAILS
Faith Ukanwa
Nov 17, 2023
Court Sacks Zamfara Gov. Dauda Lawal, 8 Months After Election | READ DETAILS
The court of appeal has sacked Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from being the governor of Zamfara state eight months after the election.
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Recall that Lawal was declared winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election, defeating the then incumbent governor, Bello Matawalle of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
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Matawalle had scored 311,976 votes, while Lawal scored 377,726 votes and was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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Ruling in a petition filed by Matawalle, the Zamfara State Election Petitions Tribunal had on September 18 upheld Lawal's victory noting that the petitioner's claims lacks merit.
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The tribunal also awarded N500,000 fine against Matawalle who later approached the court of appeal.
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Ruling on Thursday, November 16, the three-member panel of the appeal court led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, nullified the return of Governor Lawal as the winner of the governorship poll.
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Justice Sybil Nwaka who read the lead judgment ordered 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.
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The affected council areas out of the 14 in the North-Western are Maradun, Birnin-Magaji, and Bukkuyum.
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The Court held that INEC's use of IREV information to declare Lawal as governor in the absence of polling units results were unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional.
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— Faith Ukanwa