The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has affirmed the election of Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the governor of Zamfara State.
The tribunal dismissed the petition by Bello Matawalle, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, which challenged Lawal’s victory for lacking in merit.
It, therefore, awarded a N500,000 cost to the petitioner, Matawalle.
The three members of the panel: Justice Cordelia Ogadi, Justice Bello Hassan, and Justice Aliyu Gegele, were unanimous in their judgment.
The chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Cordelia Ogadi read the judgment of the tribunal, which lasted over four hours.
According to the tribunal, the petitioner failed to prove his allegation of wrongful collation of elections results and the election not being conducted in some wards in the State.
On the claim of non-compliance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the Electoral Act and corrupt way of conducting the election, the tribunal ruled that Matawalle could not prove his allegation.
