Supreme Court voids APC’s victory in Zamfara elections

The Supreme Court has voided the victory of the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State in the last general elections.

Those affected are candidates for the governorship, National and state assemblies’ elections held on February 23 and March 11, 2019.

A five-man panel of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment on Friday, held that the APC in Zamfara State did not conduct valid primaries from which its candidates emerged.

After holding that the APC had no valid candidates for the elections, the panel, led by Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, declared that the first runner-ups, who scored the second highest votes and the required spread are winners.

Candidates of the APC had won all the seats contested, including outgoing Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, who won a Senatorial seat,with candidates of the PDP emerging first runner-ups in most cases.

In the lead judgment by Justice Paul Galumje, the court upheld the earlier judgment by the Court of Appeal in Sokoto and dismiss the three appeal the affected APC candidates filed.

Justice Galumje said, since the APC had no valid candidates, having not conducted valid primaries, the votes recorded by its candidates are wasted votes.