The Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto has nullified the primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the governorship election in Zamfara State.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Tom Yakubu on Monday, the court set aside the decision of the Zamfara State High Court which allowed the APC to field a candidate for the governorship election in the state.
The appellate court ruled that the trial court failed to carry out a proper evaluation of the evidence before it before arriving at a decision, adding that the decision of the State High Court was fraught with error.
It added that it had power in law to assess pieces of evidence on appeal, which it had done in this case.
The appeal was filed by the member representing Zamfara Central senatorial district and Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, and 129 others.
The court ruling is coming two weeks after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which had said it would not recognize the primaries, conducted the governorship election in Zamfara and 28 other states.
The Returning Officer in the state, Professor Kabiru Bala, declared Mr Mukhtar Shehu of the APC as the winner on March 11 at the end of the collation of results at the INEC Headquarters in Gusau, the state capital.
Professor Bala said Shehu scored 534,541 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Mr Bello Muhammad, who polled 189,452 votes.
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