The ruling of the Zamfara Federal High Court prohibiting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from running in the upcoming governorship election in the state has been overturned by the Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto State.
The primary election that selected Dauda Lawal Dare as the PDP's candidate for governor in Zamfara had been declared invalid by a Federal High Court in Gusau, Zamfara.
In the party's primary conducted on May 25, 2022, Dare received 431 votes to claim the governorship ticket.
Abubakar Nakwada, Wadatau Madawaki, and Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau were three additional candidates who had already dropped out of the campaign due to alleged irregularities.
However, Adamu Maina, the primary's returning officer, stated that their withdrawal was rejected because it came about without official notice.
But in June, Shehu-Gusau, Madawaki, and another candidate, Aliyu Hafiz Muhammad, filed a lawsuit contesting the validity of the primary that chose Lawal as the party's nominee.
Due to alleged irregularities, inconsistencies, fraud, and violations of the election statute and the party constitution, among other things, they asked that the exercise be declared null and void.
Justice Aminu Bappa approved all of the plaintiffs' requests and invalidated the primary in his September ruling.
In order to select a flagbearer, he also directed that a new primary be held; however, Dare won the new primary.
Bappa invalidated the primaries in a different decision, however, and ruled that the PDP will not put out a candidate for the state's governorship election in 2023.
The Sokoto appeal court, however, overturned the verdict on Friday.