Like it was in 2023, history is about repeating itself in Zamfara state where the Federal High Court sitting in Gusau, the state capital, ruled out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the 2023 governorship election on the ground that it has no governorship candidate.
A similar scenario played out in 2019 when the Supreme Court ruled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had no candidates for all elective offices, a decision that gave the PDP candidate Mohammed Bello Matawalle (incumbent governor), who placed second in the general election, the benefit of becoming the governor.
He, however, defected to the APC midway into the life of his administration.
Although there are other parties, the sack of the PDP from the race may have given yet another advantage to Matawalle in next year’s general elections, considering the fact that INEC’s window for substitution or any related decision had closed long ago.
It could not be ascertained if the PDP and its candidate would contest the decision at the court of appeal.
Court sacks PDP and previous order
But in the latest judgement, the court, in specific terms, nullified the fresh PDP primary which produced Dauda Lawal-Dare as the party’s governorship candidate in the state.
With the court’s pronouncement, the party’s primary was being nullified for the second time.
A Federal High Court in Gusau, had on September 16, declared a nullity the election of Lawal-Dare as the PDP governorship candidate in the state, having emerged on May 26.
Lawal-Dare had polled 431 votes to defeat his closes opponent, Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, who placed second with five votes, and Wadatau Madawaki, who had three votes, coming third in the contest.
This was after three of the aspirants namely; Abubakar Nakwada, Madawaki, and Shehu-Gusau had withdrawn from the exercise, citing non-transparency.
And notwithstanding their position, the party’s presiding officer, Alhaji Adamu Maina, rejected their withdrawal, saying it was without formal notice.
However, in June, the trio of Madawaki, Shehu-Gusau and Aliyu Muhammad (another aspirant), jointly filed a suit challenging the legality of the primary that produced the former banker as the PDP standard bearer.
They prayed the court to annul the exercise on the grounds of alleged anomalies, contradictions, fraud, violation of the Electoral Act and the party’s constitution, among several others.
And while delivering his judgment in September, Justice Aminu Bappa granted all the prayers of the plaintiffs and nullified the primary, and ordered that a fresh primary be conducted which also threw up Lawal as winner.
In the fresh rerun, the ex-banker had 422 votes to beat Ibrahim Shehu and Hafiz Nahuche who scored one vote each.
The fresh judgement
In his Tuesday ruling, Justice Aminu Bappa said the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Maina and Lawal Dare all failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
The court held that the PDP would not field any candidate for the 2023 governorship election in the state.
Plaintiffs’ counsel speaks
Speaking to journalists after the court session, counsel to the plaintiffs, Ibrahim Ali, described the judgement as justifiable.
According to him, the provision in the Electoral Act is to the effect that where a political party intends to conduct a congress, it shall give statutory notice of 21 days to INEC before conducting such congress.
This, he said, PDP failed to comply with, thus violating electoral guidelines in the rerun.
“The PDP wrote a letter on the 20th September 2022 and served to INEC on the 23rd September indicating that it would be conducting its congress which was less than the 21 days given by INEC as required by section 82 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022. This is the reason why the court held that there is no governorship candidate under the party in Zamfara state come 2023,” Ali stated.
He further said: “What took us to court the other time and now are not the same.
“What brought us to court today is the election the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducted on September 23 violated the Electoral Act 2022 which states that a political party should inform the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 21 days before the election.
“And also, there is a provision in the electoral guidelines of the PDP, which states that if an election would hold, the contestants and the people that would vote would be notified seven days before the election.
“In the primary election that was conducted, these guidelines were not followed. The new Electoral Act 2022 says once a political party does not follow the guidelines and provisions of the Act, then it wuld not be allowed to field a candidate in the election when it comes.
“Therefore, the court has ruled that the PDP cannot field a governorship candidate in Zamafara state for the 2023 election.
“We are happy with this development because it would serve as a warning to other political parties to respect the law when conducting primary elections in different categories.”
Zamfara APC hails decision
In its reaction, the Zamfara state chapter of the APC, described the court ruling as clear testimony of its victory come 2023 in the state.
This is contained in a statement signed by the state’s publicity secretary of the party, Yusuf Idris, and made available to Blueprint Tuesday in Gusau.
“Ahead of the 2023 general elections, again, the Federal High Court sitting in Gusau, for the second time, nullified the PDP primary election that produced Dr Dauda Lawal Dare as the party’s flagbearer in the state, only that this time around, the court disqualified the PDP from fielding a governorship candidate in Zamfara for the 2023 election,” he said.
APC further described PDP as the party that “is not practicing internal democracy within its members but dictatorship and always abusing electoral laws and that of their party while nominating their candidate, usually, cannot end well.
“Such a political party cannot also be a match to APC in Zamfara that has been law abiding in all its activities, having learnt from its previous bitter experience in the state and has been doing everything to ensure that only the right thing is done, including the enthronement of a level playing ground for all political parties to play the game according to the rules.”
The statement further said: “We at the APC especially at the Zamfara state chapter, have always urged for orderliness, bringing citizens together for the betterment of our dear state but all we got from the PDP were castigation, allegations upon allegations.
“No doubt, the APC has now been naturally vindicated that it remains the party to beat in Zamfara as it has continued to receive and enjoy the goodwill of the good people of Zamfara.”