Appeal Court Upholds Nullification Of Zamfara PDP Guber Primary

The Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto presided over by Justice Muhammad Shuaibu has dismissed the appeal filed by governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Zamfara, Dr Dauda Lawal, challenging the nullification his candidature.

In a unanimous judgement by the panel of judges, Justice Shuaibu said the appeal was an abuse of judicial process and lacked merit.

Shuaibu further explained that the apeallant had no right to appeal the judgement he had already complied with.

He noted that the appeal was an academic exercise and therefore awarded N100,000 against the appeallant to be paid to the respondents .

Ibrahim Shehu a gubernatorial aspirant of PDP in Zamfara state had challenged the emergence of Dr Dauda Lawal, a PDP candidate in the state saying the election that returned him was marred by irregularities and non compliance with electoral act and PDP guidelines.

He had approached a Federal High Court Gusau which later nullified the primary and ordered PDP to conduct a rerun within 14 days .

PDP complied with the judgement, conducted the rerun and Dauda Lawal reemerged. Shehu again approached the same High Court insisting there was no election. The high court ruled in his favour saying PDP has no governorship candidate for 2023 election.

Responding, the lawyer to the appeallants, Aminu Aliyu, said his client had opportunity of appealing the judgement in Supreme Court.

Also lawyer to the respondents Ndiana Anaka said the judgement was a victory for democracy and rule of law.

He said “what is right is right and what is wrong.”