Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Attempts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reclaim its mandate in Zamfara State failed on Monday as the Supreme Court struck out its application for a review of its May 24, 2019 judgment which nullified the victory of all the party’s candidates at 2019 general elections held in Zamfara State.
But not deterred, counsel to the party, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), has vowed to re-file the application.
Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour who led a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, struck out the application in a unanimous decision.
The apex court predicated its decision on the grounds that the application was incompetent because all its judgments on the Zamfara legal tussle being challenged by the party were not attached to the application.
Justice Rhodes-Vivour who delivered the ruling said the applicant only attached the lead judgment and failed to exhibit the consenting judgments of the four other members of the panel which gave the May 24, 2019 verdict.
“By our rules, the application is incompetent, and it is hereby struck out,” he ruled.
The Supreme Court had in a unanimous judgment delivered by a five-man panel led by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, on May 24, 2019, declared that APC never conducted primary elections thus had no valid candidates for the general election.
The court had declared that all the votes credited to the party and its candidates in the elections were wasted.
The apex court consequently declared the first runners-up in the 2019 general elections in the state as the winners of all the offices earlier declared to have been won by the APC and its candidates.
The APC had been declared the winner of the governorship election, as well as the entire three senatorial seats, seven House of Representatives seats and the 24 House of Assembly seats, contested in the February 23 and March 11, 2019, general elections in the state.
With the governorship and deputy governorship seats which the party had won in the elections, the APC had won all the 36 elective offices available in the state.