Supreme Court sacks Governor-elect, Yari, others as PDP set to take over Zamfara

The Supreme Court has sacked all the elected candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Zamfara state during the 2019 elections.

The five-member panel of justices, in a unanimous judgment on Friday, held that the party in the state failed to conduct primaries in accordance with the party rules.

In the lead judgment by Justice Paul Adamu Galinji, the apex court held that all votes cast for the APC as “wasted votes” and declared that all political parties with the second highest votes in the elections and the required spread, are elected to the various elections.

The APC had won the gubernatorial as well as all the national and state assembly seats in Zamfara State, but the joy of those elected was short-lived when the Court of Appeal declared that their party did not conduct valid primaries, a development that induced anxiety in the state as to what would happen as the May 29, 2019, inauguration day inches closer.

Some of the persons likely to be affected include the Governor-elect, Mukhtar Shehu Idris; Senators Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara West); Aliyu Ikra Bilbis (Zamfara Central); Kaura Tijjani Yahaya (Zamfara North); seven elected members of the House of Representatives and 24 House of Assembly members. They all belong to the incumbent governor’s camp. The opposition PDP scored the second highest valid votes in the general elections. For instance, in the governorship, while Idris got 534,541, his closest opponent, Dr. Bello Muhammad Mutawalle of the PDP polled 189,452. The candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Sen. Dansadau scored 15,177, while Dr. Abdullahi Shinkafi of APGA garnered 3,865.