Tribunal reserves Zamfara governorship election petition verdict

The Zamfara State Governorship Election Tribunal, which is based in Sokoto, has deferred ruling on the petition filed by the state’s former governor, Alhaji Bello Mohammed Matawalle Maradun, which questioned the validity of the election results that installed Dauda Lawal as governor.

After the respondents and the petitioner’s council, Bello Matawallen Maradun, adopted their written addresses to conclude their arguments, the three-judge panel presided over by Justice Cordelia Ogadi reserved the judgement for a later date to be communicated to the parties involved.

The Tribunal has heard testimony from the first and second respondents, Dauda Lawal, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Lawal requested that the Tribunal reject Bello Matawalle’s petition, which challenged the March 18 Zamfara Governorship Election on the grounds that it lacked merit.

As evidence that the petitioner had not made his case, all of the respondents cited the case of Oyetola v. Ademola and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition right away.

In his submission, the petitioner’s lead attorney, Barrister Usman Sule, claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had excluded the results sheet for the 98,564 votes cast in the Maradun Local Government Area and that some council areas in the state had not yet declared a winner despite the elections not being fully completed.