In less than a week to the governorship and state house of assembly elections in Nigeria, supreme court has on Monday, affirmed the primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party that produced Dauda Lawal, as the governorship candidate of the party, in the state.
An agrieved member of the PDP in Zamfara state, Ibrahim Sheu Gusau, who contested the primary election with Lawal, had approached the court, to challenge the legality of the PDP governorship primary election, held in the state on May 25, 2022, which produce produced Lawal, as the the governorship candidate of the party, in the state.
However, supreme court in an unanimous decision, by a five-man panel, dismissed an appeal filed by the agrieved governorship hopeful.
It would be recalled that a federal high court sitting in Zamfara state had earlier nullified the primary election, when the judge, Aminu Bappa-Aliyu, ruled out the primary election that produced Lawal, noting that the party had no governorship candidate, in the state.
However, the five-member panel of the supreme court justices, while delivering the judgement on Monday, said Gusau’s appeal “lacked merit.”
The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Okoro, while reading the lead judgement, said “the court resolved all the issues for determination against the appellant and held that the appeal was unmeritorious and the same was dismissed. Parties were ordered to bear their respective costs.”
The apex court struck out his cross-appeal, on the grounds that the mail appeal had been dismissed, and the judgement, by Justice Muhammad Shaibu and two other members of the panel, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, to accept Lawal as the elected governorship candidate of the Zamfara PDP, for the 2023 governorship election in the state.
