Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has declared the March 18th governorship election in Zamfara inconclusive and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conducts elections in some wards in three local government areas of the state. Technically, the Court sacks the governor but there is still one more window for him to appeal the judgement.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the poll ahead of then incumbent and now Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle of All Progressives Congress.

Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Matawalle approached the election tribunal to overturn the outcome of the gubernatorial election and declare him the winner on the ground that the poll was full of discrepancies, adding that voting did not take place in some local governments.

However, the Governorship Election Tribunal dismissed the request of the APC candidate for lack of merit to substantiate his request. Displeased with the ruling of the electoral tribunal, Matawalle headed to the appeal court to seek redress and prayed to the appellate court to declare the poll inconclusive.

Delivering the judgment on Thursday, the three-member panel led by Justice Sybil Nwaka Gbagiz overruled the judgement of the tribunal for failing to properly examine the evidence presented before making its ruling.

The appellate court also maintained that the tribunal’s decision was invalid because it relied on the IREV for the collation of election results which is contrary to the Electoral Act. The court also submitted that INEC Results Verification (IREV) portal is not for collation of results, adding that the technology is only meant for results viewing.

The court also observed that there are some local governments where the election results were not counted, and some polling units that did not hold an election during the poll.

Declaring the poll inconclusive, the court validated the prayers of the appellants and, as a result, ordered that the election held in the state be inconclusive.

The court further ruled that INEC must hold fresh elections in Birnin Magaji, Bukun Yum LGA, and Maradun Local Government Areas.