Zamfara: Full text of INEC chairman’s speech affirming PDP candidates winners of 2019 election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Saturday declared candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), winners of the governorship elections in Zamfara State.

INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu, said the body’s decision was in respect of the Supreme Court’s judgment, which on Friday nullified the victory of all candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

His full speech at the INEC national headquarters in Abuja below:

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. First, let me welcome all of you to this Press Conference. The reason for addressing you today is to provide an update on the recent decision of the Supreme Court regarding the candidates fielded by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State for the 2019 general elections.

2. It is important to provide a background to the legal process that culminated in the Supreme Court decision on 24th May 2019. You may all recall that the Commission issued the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 general elections on 9th January 2018, over one year in advance. Among other activities, the conduct of party primaries was scheduled to take place between 18th August and 7th October 2018. Unfortunately, the APC did not conduct its primaries in Zamfara State within this stipulated time and the Commission duly informed the party that it would not be in a position to present candidates for elections in the State. Subsequently, various interested parties, including the APC itself, approached the court over the decision of the Commission. Just before the election, the subsisting court judgment at the time ordered the Commission to include the APC on the ballot for the Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly elections, which the Commission complied with. INEC seeks Electoral Offences Commission(Opens in a new browser tab)

3. However, since the elections were completed, a Court of Appeal judgment and now a Supreme Court judgment have determined that the APC did not conduct valid primaries for the elections in question. In its judgment delivered on 24th May 2019, the Supreme Court, having determined that the APC did not conduct valid primaries, said that the votes cast for the party in all the elections in question were “wasted” and ordered the Commission to recognize the runners-up as the winners. This judgment affects the positions of Governor and Deputy-Governor, three Senatorial, seven Federal and twenty-four State Assembly Constituencies.

4. Following the judgment of the Supreme Court, the Commission has met in two emergency sessions and taken briefings from our lawyers and staff on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment. While the legislative elections (Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections) are straight forward to deal with because they entail first-past-the-post or simple majority of votes, the Governorship election is determined not just by majority votes but also spread in accordance with Section 179 (2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). This means that we had to first discount the votes cast for the APC at the elections and then carefully rework the spread by Local Government Areas based on the new valid votes.

5. In compliance with the Supreme Court judgment, the Commission has now determined the winners of the elections in Zamfara State as follows:

Governorship

1. GOVERNOR BELLO MOHAMMED MATAWALLE, MALE, PDP

2. DEPUTY GOVERNOR MAHDI ALIYU GUSAU,MALE, PDP.

Senatorial

1. ZAMFARA NORTH ALHAJI YA’U SAHABI MALE PDP

2. ZAMFARA CENTRAL MOHAMMED HASSAN MALE PDP

3. ZAMFARA WEST LAWALI HASSAN ANKA MALE PDP

House of Representatives

1. KAURAN NAMODA/BIRNIN MAGAJI UMAR SANI DAN-GALADIMA MALE PDP

2. SHINKAFI/ZURMI BELLO HASSAN SHINKAFI MALE PDP

3. GUSAU/TSAFE KABIRU AMADU MALE PDP

4. BUNGUDU/MARU SHEHU AHMED MALE PDP 5. ANKA/TALATA MAFARA KABIRU YAHAYA MALE PDP

6. BAKURA/MARADUN AHMED MUHAMMAD BAKURA MALE PDP

7. GUMMI/BUKKUYUM SULAIMAN ABUBAKAR GUMI MALE PDP

State House of Assembly

1. KAURA NAMODA NORTH ZAHARADEEN M. SADA MALE PDP

2. KAURA NAMODA SOUTH ANAS SARKIN FADA MALE PDP

3. BIRNIN MAGAJI NURA DAHIRU MALE PDP

4. ZURMI EAST SALIHU USMAN ZURMI MALE PDP

5. ZURMI WEST NASIRU MU’AZU MALE PDP

6. SHINKAFI MUHAMMAD G. AHMAD MALE PDP

7. TSAFE EAST MUSA BAWA MUSA MALE PDP

8. TSAFE WEST ALIYU NA-MAIGORA MALE PDP 9. GUSAU EAST IBRAHIM NAIDA MALE PDP

10. GUSAU WEST SHAFI’U DAMA MALE PDP

11. BUNGUDU EAST KABIRU MAGAJI MALE PDP

12. BUNGUDU WEST NASIRU BELLO LAWAL MALE PDP

13. MARU NORTH YUSUF ALHASSAN MUHAMMAD MALE PDP

14. MARU SOUTH KABIRU HASHIMU MALE NRM 15 ANKA YUSUF MUHAMMAD MALE PDP 16 TALATA MAFARA NORTH SHAMSUDEEN HASSAN MALE PDP

17. TALATA MAFARA SOUTH AMINU YUSUF JANGEBE MALE PDP

18. BAKURA TUKUR JEKADA BIRNIN TUDU MALE PDP

19. MARADUN I FARUK MUSA DOSARA MALE PDP

20. MARADUN II NASIRU ATIKU MALE PDP

21. GUMMI I ABDULNASIR IBRAHIM MALE PDP 22. GUMMI II MANSUR MOHAMMED MALE PDP 23. BUKKUYUM NORTH IBRAHIM MOHAMMED NA’IDDA MALE PDP

24. BUKKUYUM SOUTH SANI DAHIRU MALE PDP

6. The Commission will issue Certificates of Return to the new winners as follows: i. Governor and Deputy Governor-elect, Senators-elect and Members of the House of Representatives-elect will receive their certificates on Monday 27th May 2019 at the Commission’s Electoral Institute at 2.00pm. ii. Members of the State House of Assembly-elect will receive their certificates from the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Zamfara State at the INEC State Office in Gusau on Friday 31st May 2019 at 10.00am.

7. I wish to seize this opportunity to draw the attention of all stakeholders, but particularly the political parties, to the implications of the Supreme Court judgment on the Zamfara matter. It is clear that properly conducted party primaries are cardinal to the proper internal functioning of political parties, the electoral process and our democratic system at large. Therefore, political parties must take very seriously the conduct of primaries according to all extant rules, including the monitoring of the processes by INEC to avoid a repeat of the Zamfara experience. I want therefore to remind us that the Commission has since 9th April 2019 issued the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 Bayelsa and Kogi Governorship elections by which party primaries are scheduled to hold between the 2nd and 29th August 2019. I appeal to political parties intending to field candidates in the elections to adhere strictly to this and other timelines in the Timetable and Schedule of activities.

8. I thank you very much and I will now take some questions.”