The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate Dauda Lawal has been declared winner of the Zamfara State governorship election, in what can be considered the biggest upset of the 2023 general elections.
Lawal unseated the incumbent Governor of the State, Bello Matawalle.
The returning officer for the election, Professor Kasimu Shehu, said Dauda scored 377,726 votes to defeat Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle, who polled 311, 976 votes.
This came after some mild drama over the presentation of the results for Maradun Local Government Area (LGA), where allegations surfaced that the Collation Officer, Dr Ahmed Kainuwa, had been abudcted.
However, upon arrival at the state collation centre in the INEC headquarters in Gusau, Kainuwa gave the reasons for his delayed appearance.
In the buildup to the 2023 General Elections, Lawal faced a lot of hurdles, especially litigation on his nomination as Governorship candidate. The supreme court annulled the primaries that produced him and a new one was conducted. But that was not the first time he would be at the Supreme court for a case.
In 2021, the apex court ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release the N9 billion it seized from Dauda Lawal.
In a unanimous judgement, the five-man panel, led by Justice Muhammad Lawal Garba, dismissed the appeal filed by the EFCC against the judgement of the Court of Appeal which, among other things, ordered that:
“The decisions of the Federal High Court, Coram Judice: Hassan, J. delivered in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/13/2017 on 16th February 2017 are hereby set aside. The order of final forfeiture of the sum of N9,080,000,000.00 (Nine Billion and Eighty Million Naira) to the Federal Government of Nigeria is hereby set aside. It is hereby ordered that the said sum of N9,080,000,000.00 (Nine Billion and Eighty Million Naira) be returned to the Appellant forthwith.”