The petition filed by the state’s former governor, Alhaji Bello Mohammed Matawalle Maradun, challenging the validity of the governorship election result that installed Dauda Lawal as governor of the state was heard by the Zamfara State Governorship Election Tribunal, which is based in Sokoto.
After the respondents and the counsel for the petitioner, Bello Matawallen Maradun, adopted their written addresses to conclude their arguments, the three-judge panel presided over by Justice Cordelia Ogadi postponed communication of the ruling to a later date to be agreed upon by the parties.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the first and second respondents, Dauda Lawal, have all testified before the Tribunal.
Lawal requested that the Tribunal dismiss the former governor Bello Matawalle’s petition challenging the results of the March 18 Zamfara Governorship Election due to its lack of merit.
All of the respondents cited the Oyetola v. Ademola case as evidence that the petitioner had not provided sufficient evidence to support his claims. They urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition right away.
In his submission, Barrister Usman Sule, the lead attorney for the petitioner, claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, had excluded the result sheet for the 98,564 votes cast in the Maradun Local Government Area and that the election had not yet been declared the winner in some council areas of the state.
