‘Frivolous, grossly vexatious,’ S’Court dismisses APC application, affirms Matawalle as Zamfara gov

The appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a review of the governorship and other elections in Zamfara State has been sacked by the Supreme Court.

The apex court frowned at the appeal, describing it as “frivolous, grossly vexatious”.

The court ruled that the faction of the APC that brought the appeal should pay N2 million cost to the respondents in the matter.

The Supreme Court had in an earlier ruling, sacked all candidates of the APC, who won different elective positions in the state during the 2019 general elections

The court had disqualified all the APC candidates, for the governorship, federal and state legislative elections, on the grounds that the party failed to conduct primaries in the state.

Following that ruling, PDP candidates, became beneficiaries of all the elective positions.

However, the APC faction in the state, led by the state’s former governor, Abdulaziz Yari returned to the apex court praying it to review its earlier ruling.

When the matter came up on March 17, the court heard the matter but reserved ruling on it.

Ruling on the matter on Friday, Inyang Okoro, who read the decision of the five-man panel of the apex court, said that order eight rule 16 prohibits the court from reviewing its own decision.

He said, “The supreme court has no jurisdiction to sit over the appeal of its decision. The finality of the judgment of the supreme court is sealed.

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“This application is a gross abuse of the process of this court. It violates the rules of this court.”

But one of the justices, Chima Nweze, giving a dissenting judgment said, “I take the view that the court should allow the review of the consequential order.

“This court has the powers to overrule itself when in error. I hereby enter an order setting aside the consequential order.”

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