Tribunal dismisses Matawalle’s petition against Gov Lawal

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal yesterday dismissed the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Bello Muhammad Mutawalle against Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.

In a unanimous decision, the panel held that Matawalle’s petition lacked merit.

Recall that Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had approached the tribunal to challenge the election of Governor Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who was declared winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Chairperson of the panel, Justice Cordelia Ogadi who led two other members of the tribunal maintained that the petitioners were unable to prove the cases of over-voting and other malpractices in the election as they claimed against the governor.

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She noted that the petitioners presented 19 witnesses along with exhibits to prove their case while the respondents presented 18 witnesses and exhibits to defend the outcome of the poll.

The 18 witnesses, she said testified that there was tension during the collation exercise at Maradun and presented an exhibit that could not be read clearly.

The chairperson added that the 3rd respondent (INEC) had also testified on the processes including the declaration of election result.

According to her, all the arguments were considered and the case decided based on the constitutional requirements as well as the provisions of the electoral laws.

She therefore dismissed the petition for lack of merit and failure to prove the alleged irregularities during the election and awarded N500,000 as cost against the petitioners.

Reacting, the lead counsel to Matawalle, Usman O Sule (SAN) said they would wait for further directive from their client.

“As you know, this is the first step. There are other steps to be taken, which will be determined by our clients,” he said.