JUST IN: Supreme Court upholds Zamfara PDP candidate for governor

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s candidate in Zamfara state for the March 11 governorship election has been recognized by the Supreme Court as legitimate.

The appeal against Ibrahim Gusau’s candidacy as a candidate for governor was dismissed by the supreme court on Monday in a unanimous decision by a five-judge bench on the grounds that it lacked merit.

Justice Adamu Jauro upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had on January 6 endorsed the second primary election that resulted in the candidate, in an appeal with the reference number SC/CV/92/2023.

In a lead decision, Judge Jauro upheld the arguments made by Damian Dodo, SAN, the governorship candidate’s attorney, that his client was duly and properly nominated in accordance with the law.

Judge Jauro ruled that the Gusau Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to rule on the Dr. Gusau lawsuit when it twice declared the primary elections invalid.

Dauda Lawal-Dare received 442 votes to win the primary election.

The primary election that produced Dauda Lawal-Dare as the PDP candidate for the March 11, 2023, governorship election in Zamfara State was confirmed by the Court of Appeal, Sokoto Division, on June 6.

Before to that, the May 25, 2022 PDP governorship primary election was challenged and declared invalid by a Federal High Court in Gusau.

A new primary election was held on September 23, 2022, after a High Court ruling.

Dauda Lawal-Dare, Adamu Maina-Waziri, the head of the primary election committee, and retired colonel Bala Mande sought remedy by going to the appeals court.

The Court of Appeal held that the appellants were successful in establishing each of the seven grounds for appeal raised by their counsel, and that the court found each to be true in a unanimous decision read on their behalf by Judge Abubakar Talba.

The judge ruled that judicial provisions could not be overridden by technological defaults.

On the grounds of judicial provisions and the interest in a fair hearing, he dismissed all preliminary objections to the appeal’s competency.

The justice argued that the High Court erred in rejecting papers presented by INEC and that the trial court failed to specify a time frame for holding a rerun poll and for sending out participation notices.

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