Supreme Court Dismisses APC’s Application for Judicial review of the Zamfara Governorship Election

The Supreme Court has dismissed the application for judicial review filed by the APC in Zamfara State against Senator Kabiru Marafa and 179 others.

In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court held that the application is a vexatious, frivolous and gross abuse of court process.

The court awarded the cost of N2m to be paid by the applicant to the 1st to 140th respondents.

Justice Okoro further held that the apex court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain an application seeking a review of its own judgment as the finality of the judgment of the supreme court is sealed and cannot be reviewed under any guise.

Justice Centus Nweze, however, disagrees with the other members of the panel as he reads a dissenting judgment upholding the application of the APC.

He insists that it is better to admit an error instead of justifying an error that fails to represent justice. He adds that the Supreme Court can reverse itself.

Justice Nweze further insists that the judgment of the court favors the PDP who was not a party to the suit in the first place and orders the setting aside the earlier judgment of the court.

an application filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking the review of the May 24, 2019 judgment which nullified the victory of all the party’s candidates at the 2019 Governorship Elections in Zamfara State.

The APC and other applicants represented by Chief Robert Clarke (SAN) at the Tuesday’s proceedings filed a suit against Senator Kabiru Marafa and 179 others

Following the upturn of the 2019 Zamfara election results, the All Progressives Congress (APC) filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking the review of its judgment.

A five-man panel of the Supreme court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed began reviewing the judgment given on May 24, 2019, which nullified the victory of all the party’s candidates at the 2019 general elections held in the state.

The Supreme Court on July 22, 2019, struck out the APC’s application asking the Apex Court to review its judgment on the polls.

In a unanimous ruling by a five-man panel of justices led by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, the apex court said the application was incompetent and lacked merit.

The panel added that the application should not have been brought before it in the first place.

The Supreme Court nullified the elections of all the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections, stating that the party did not conduct primaries and as such, they have no candidates.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Adamu Galunje held that the Appeal Court in Sokoto was right when it agreed with the respondents that a party that has no candidate cannot be said to have won an election, hence the votes cast for the APC in the election were wasted votes.

Consequently, following a unanimous judgment of a five-man panel led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, the apex court declared that the party with the highest number of votes cast at the election outside the appellants is the winner of the election.