The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has declared as inconclusive, the governorship election that was held in Zamfara State on March 18.

In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, on Thursday nullified the return of Governor Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the governorship poll.

Justice Sybil Nwaka who read the lead judgement ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election in three Local Government Areas of the state, where elections had not been held previously or where results from various polling units were not counted.

The affected LGAs are Maradun, Birnin-Magaji and Bukkuyum.

The court held that it was wrong for INEC to rely on information it obtained from its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, to collate the final result of the governorship election.

The judgement followed an appeal that was brought before the court by the immediate past governor of the state, Bello Matawalle, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.

Matawalle was later appointed by President Bola Tinubu as the Minister of State for Defence.