The Zamfara State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, dismissed a petition seeking to unseat Governor Bello Mutawalle.
The petition was filed by Muhammed Takori of the Advanced People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA) against Mattawalle, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Takori, in the petition prayed the tribunal to nullify the emergency of Mutawalle on the ground that he did not score two-thirds of the votes cast in local government areas as required by law. He also queries the declaration of substantial votes cast on the election day as waste.
But Justice Binta Zubair held that the petition was un-meritorious in view of the Supreme Court pronouncement of May 24.
Zubairu held that by the Supreme Court judgement, the votes cast for Mutawalle and his party, the PDP are the lawful votes as far as the March 9 governorship election in Zamfara is concerned.
The tribunal disagreed with the petitioner that Mutawalle did not win votes in two-third of the local government areas of Zamfara, adding that the petitioner wrongly predicated his argument on the votes already declared as waste by the apex court.
Earlier, the tribunal had dismissed Takori’s preliminary objection that the PDP did not conduct any primaries and that Mutawalle was not duly sponsored by his party, and therefore was not qualified to contest for the governorship election in the first place.
In dismissing the petitioner’s objection, Zubairu noted that the issue of nomination and sponsorship of a candidate is the sole responsibility of the party and also a pre-election matter of which the tribunal has no jurisdiction to entertain.
She also imposed a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners to be paid to Mutawalle as cost of litigaton.
The apex court in the judgment delivered by Tanko Muhammad, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), held that votes cast for candidates who ought not to have participated in an election are wasted and cannot be used in determining the outcome of an election.
INEC had first declared Muktar Idris of All Progressives Congress as winner of Zamfara governorship, having secured 534,541 votes out of the 810,782 votes cast across the 14 local government areas of the state. Bello Matawalle of the PDP came second with 189,452.
The Supreme Court, however, invalidated the participation of candidates of the APC in the governorship, National Assembly and House of Assembly in the election on the ground that they were not properly nominated as required by law.