Nigeria: Ruling APC loses key state to faulty primaries

By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS Nigeria (AA) - Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was stripped of all the seats won in the 2019 ballots in the northwestern Zamfara state, as the country's top court on Friday ruled that the party held no valid primaries to nominate its candidates.
Justice Paul Galumje, who read the unanimous judgment of five-member panel of the Supreme Court, said: "Votes recorded in favor of the applicants (APC and its candidates) are wasted votes".
The court held that the parties with the second highest numbers of votes in the election are the winners of the election -- an affirmation of the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeal.
The decision means that the APC, which won all the elections in the state, has been stripped of seats of governor in the state, three senators, seven House of Representatives members, and 24 House of Assembly members.
The main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the runners-up is the only beneficiary of the ruling.
This is the first time in Nigeria’s political history when the court handed such a sweeping decision on electoral matter.