Yesterday’s judgement of the Supreme Court which disqualified all candidates of the APC in the governorship, National Assembly and state house of Assembly in Zamfara State is setting the stage for political pundits to analyze the judgment how it suits their narrative.
Looking at judgement of the apex court and what the law says, it is clear that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bello Matawalle, have met the requirements of the law and should be declared winner by INEC and issued his certificate of return.
The supreme Court in their judgement declared votes cast to APC in all the elections in Zamfara State in 2019 as “wasted votes” which implies that all the votes cast to APC candidates does not to exist in the eyes of the law.
The candidate of the PDP fulfilled the two Sections of the law- 179(2)(a) and (b) which determines who wins Governorship election in Nigeria.
Bello fulfilled the Section 179(2) (a) by scoring the highest lawful votes cast in the election- 189,452 votes
Section 179(2) (b) talks about scoring 25% of the votes cast in 2/3 of the LGAs in the state and the candidate of the PDP also fulfilled this law.
Below is the full result of Zamfara governorship election in the entire 14 LGA and it shows that PDP candidate scored above 25% in all the LGAs
1 Bakura LGA
PDP – 15,331 (87%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 17,540.
2 Anka LGA
PDP – 8,292 (77%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 10,743.
3 Gummi LGA
PDP – 13,418 (78%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 17,198
4 Bukkuyum LGA
PDP – 12,010 (74%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 16,216
5 Maradun LGA
PDP – 18,868 (88%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 21,477
6 Zurmi LGA :
PDP – 13,194 (68%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 19,431
7 Talata Mafara LGA:
PDP – 12,691 (71%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 17,875
8 Bungudu LGA:
PDP – 18,379 (56%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 32,892
9 Kaura Namoda LGA:
PDP – 14,647 (79%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 18,439
10 Birnin Magaji LGA:
PDP – 7,880 (79%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 9,974
11 Gusau LGA:
PDP – 22,441 (60%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 37,269
12 Maru LGA:
PDP – 9,830 (39%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 25,325
13 Shinkafi LGA:
PDP – 5,707 (60%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 9,577
14 Tsafe LGA:
PDP – 16,764 (48%)
Reversed Accreditated Votes – 34,747
All eyes is now on the electoral umpire as their last press statement on the issue is not clear if they will obey the judgment of the highest court in the land.
