The Supreme Court on Friday nullified the elections of all the candidates of the All Progressives Congress Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections.

Delivering a unanimous judgment of the five-man panel led 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 posts earlier declared to have been won by the APC and their candidates.

In the lead judgment by Justice Paul Adamu Galinji, the apex court held that all votes cast for the APC as “wasted votes” and declared that all political parties with the second highest votes in the elections and the required spread, are elected to the various elections. 

The APC had won the gubernatorial as well as all the national and state assembly seats in Zamfara State, but the joy of those elected was short-lived when the Court of Appeal declared that their party did not conduct valid primaries, a development that induced anxiety in the state as to what would happen as the May 29, 2019, inauguration day inches closer.

Some of the persons likely to be affected include the Governor-elect, Mukhtar Shehu Idris; Senators Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara West); Aliyu Ikra Bilbis (Zamfara Central); Kaura Tijjani Yahaya (Zamfara North); seven elected members of the House of Representatives and 24 House of Assembly members. 

They all belong to the incumbent governor’s camp. The opposition PDP scored the second highest valid votes in the general elections. For instance, in the governorship, while Idris got 534,541, his closest opponent, Dr. Bello Muhammad Mutawalle of the PDP polled 189,452. The candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Sen. Dansadau scored 15,177, while Dr. Abdullahi Shinkafi of APGA garnered 3,865.