By Precious Olisa
The Zamfara State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Sokoto State has upheld the election of Mr Dauda Lawal as the governor of the state.
Mr Lawal emerged victorious in the election after contesting to govern the state on March 18, 2023, under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He defeated the immediate past Governor of the state and current Minister of State for Defence, Mr Bello Matawalle, with an impressive margin of 65,750 votes.
The returning officer for the poll had announced that Mr Matawalle, the candidate of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), secured a total of 311,976 votes, while Mr Lawal was said to have garnered 377,726 votes.
The former Governor, dissatisfied with the outcome of the exercise, approached the tribunal to remove Mr Lawal as the Governor of the state, but his suit was thrown out and awarded a N500,000 fine to him.
The three justices of the panel, Justice Cordelia Ogadi, Justice Bello Hassan, and Justice Aliyu Gegele, were unanimous in their judgment.
Reacting to this development, the spokesperson of the Governor of Zamfara State, Mr Sulaiman Bala Idris, in a statement on Monday in Gusau, stressed that the tribunal’s verdict represented the will and decision of the people.
