By Becky Usman

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has declared the Zamfara State governorship election, held on March 18, inconclusive. In a unanimous decision led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, the three-member panel on Thursday nullified the victory of Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Justice Sybil Nwaka, delivering the lead judgment, directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election in three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. These LGAs, namely Maradun, Birnin-Magaji, and Bukkuyum, had either not conducted elections previously or had uncounted results from various polling units.

The court ruled against INEC’s reliance on information from its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal for collating the final result of the governorship election. The decision came in response to an appeal filed by Bello Matawalle, the immediate past governor of the state and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election.

Matawalle, who was subsequently appointed as the Minister of State for Defence by President Bola Tinubu, challenged the election outcome, leading to the Court of Appeal’s decision for a rerun in the specified LGAs.