The election of Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has been declared null and void by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, while the governors of Kano, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, will find out their fate today.
Lawal was declared the winner of the March 18 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) filed a tribunal challenge to Lawal's victory, who ran on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform.
The APC appealed to the Supreme Court after the tribunal upheld Lawal's election.
While Gawuna of the APC was declared the winner by the Kano State election petitions tribunal, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State also emerged there, much like Dauda of Zamfara State, although it is impossible to predict how today's decisions will turn out for either case.
A three-man panel of justices declared yesterday that Lawal's victory was void and mandated that three local government areas hold new elections.
The affected LGAs are Maradun, Birnin Magaji and Bokoyom.
With 377,726 votes, INEC had declared Dauda the winner; however, incumbent APC contender Matawalle, with 311,976 votes, had to go to court.
Currently serving as the state minister of defense, Matawalle had previously charged that INEC had tampered with the results of some ward areas in order to thwart his election victory.
But in a ruling on September 18, the tribunal decided that the petition lacked merit.
The petitioners were also fined N500,000 by the court.
Following that, Matawalle and the APC filed an appeal contesting the tribunal's ruling.
The Zamfara State Election Petitions Tribunal did not take the appellants' evidence into consideration, the court of appeals ruled in its ruling.
As a result, the Court of Appeal ruled that the election was inconclusive and mandated that INEC conduct new polls in three LGAs.
