By David Olalekan.
The Supreme Court has nullified the elections of all APC candidates in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections.
In a unanimous judgment of the five-man panel headed by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, the apex court declared the first runners-up in the 2019 general elections in the state as the winners of all the seats earlier declared to have been won by the APC.
Justice Paul Galinje, who read the lead judgment, upheld the earlier ruling of the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal on the matter. The court held that the All Progressives Congress did not conduct any valid primary election and as a result did not produce candidate for any of the elective posts in the 2019 elections in the state.
Justice Galinge described the votes polled by the APC candidates in the elections as wasted, noting that the party and the candidates with the second highest votes and the spread in the various elections were the valid winners.
By this latest court pronouncement, all APC candidates in Zamfara, including the outgoing governor of the State, Abdulaziz Yari, who was elected to the Senate, would now have to concede their seats to the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party who were first runners-up in the elections.