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Supreme Court Sacks Zamfara APC Candidates, Says Party Held No Primaries

The Supreme Court on Friday nullified the elections of all the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections.


Supreme Court Strikes Out APC's Appeal On Exclusion From Rivers Elections
A file photo of the Supreme Court in Abuja.

Supreme Court Strikes Out APC's Appeal On Exclusion From Rivers Elections

 

The Supreme Court on Friday nullified the elections of all the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Adamu Galunje held that the Appeal Court in Sokoto was right when it agreed with the respondents that the party did not conduct primaries in the state.

According to him, a party that has no candidate cannot be said to have won an election, hence the votes cast for the APC in the election were wasted votes.

Read Also: Yari Heads To Supreme Court Over Zamfara APC Governorship Primary

Consequently, following a unanimous judgment of a five-man panel led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, the apex court declared that the party with the highest number of votes cast at the election outside the appellants is the winner of the election.

The Court of Appeal in Sokoto State had earlier nullified the APC primary for the governorship election in the state.

The development followed an appeal filed by the lawmaker representing Zamfara Central district and Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, and 129 others.

Subsequently, the APC Governorship candidate and state governor, Abdul’Aziz Yari, took the case to the Supreme Court.