The Zamfara State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has relocated to Abuja over security concerns in the state.
At its inaugural sitting on Thursday, the Tribunal granted the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Zamfara State, Sani Shinkafi leave for substituted serve on the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate, Mukhta Shehu Idris.
Justice Binta Amina, heading the three-man tribunal ordered that all the processes should be pasted on the wall of the national headquarters of APC in Abuja.
The counsel to Shinkafi and APGA, Ifeanyi Mbaeri had filed an ex-parte application asking to be allowed to serve copies of his petition on APC and its candidate through substituted means, either by delivering the petition and all processes at the APC national secretariat situated at Plot 40 Blantyre Street, Wuse 2 or by pasting the petition and all other processes at the entrance gate or any other conspicuous location.
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Shinkafi and his party through their lawyer, Mbaeri, are specifically asking the tribunal to nullify the governorship elections held in the state on March 9 and order for fresh polls without the participation of APC and its candidate Mukhta Shehu Idris.
They are contending that by virtue of Section 177(c) of the 1999 constitution as amended “a person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor of a state if inter alia, he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party to contest the said election”.
They argue that by virtue of the relevant laws, the APC candidate was as at the time of the Zamfara State Governorship election, not qualified to contest as he was not a sponsored candidate of a political party.
