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JUST IN: Appeal Court nullifies Lawal Dauda’s election as Zamfara gov

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Following an appeal filed by previous governor Bello Matawalle, the Court of Appeal in Abuja fired the governor of Zamfara State, Lawal Dauda of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Remember that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) certified Dauda Lawal as the governor-elect during the March 18 governorship election, claiming he received 377,726 votes.

The current governor, Bello Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was believed to have received 311,976 votes at the time.

Bello filed a petition with the Zamfara State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Sokoto, challenging Dauda’s election.

Matawalle’s legal team, lead by Akinlola Kehinde SAN, claimed that election results, including those of Maradun LGA, were tainted.

He further said that INEC failed to hold elections in various wards across the state for no apparent reason.

However, the Tribunal upheld Lawal’s election while dismissing Matawalle’s petition as without merit.

Matawalle was named Minister of State for Defense by President Bola Tinubu after losing his campaign for a second term.

He did, however, appeal the Tribunal’s decision, claiming that Dauda did not receive the majority of valid votes cast during the governorship race and that the election was inconclusive.

He claimed that the Tribunal incorrectly struck out evidence presented by his witnesses, as well as many passages in his petition.

The PDP, on the other hand, accused Matawalle of failing to prove his petition challenging Dauda’s election victory.

On Thursday, a three-man panel of the Appeal court led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, declared: “It is our view that the order of the Trial tribunal striking out several paragraphs of the appellants petition was erroneous.”

Following the tribunal’s rejection of Matawalle’s evidence (PW1 and PW17) as hearsay, the appellate court concluded that it was clear from the polling unit results utilized by INEC that the result sheets were not signed by party agents of the appellants.

Furthermore, contrary to the Tribunal’s stance, the appeal court ruled that Matawalle’s two witnesses (LG collation agents) are linked to the specific parts of the appellants’ case.

According to the Electoral Act, it is not essential for a party who alleges noncompliance with applicable legislation to summon oral evidence provided their documents establish the same allegations.

The appeal court remarked that the records used by INEC to declare results in the Maradun LGA of Zamfara state were mangled, and hence the exhibits presented by Matawalle before the Tribunal were not hearsay evidence.

“This court resolves this issue in favour of the appellants.,” the court held.

The appeal court further held that the tribunal failed to properly evaluate the evidence brought before it and that the appellants placed credible evidence before the tribunal.

The appeal court subsequently held that the appellants successfully proved that Dauda was not duly elected, and that the INEC Results Viewing Portal cannot be used in collating results as done by the Tribunal.

“This appeal is hereby allowed.

“The March 2023 Governorship election held in Zamfara state is inconclusive and the return of Dauda is set aside.

“INEC is hereby directed to hold fresh elections in Birnin Magaji and Bukun Yum LGA,” the court held.

This judgment was adopted by Justices Cordelia Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo and Sybil Nwaka Gbagi.

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