Zamfara North: Kaura secures APC ticket

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Zamfara State, Yahaya Tijjani Kaura, has secured the party’s ticket for Zamfara North ahead of the National Assembly election scheduled to hold simultaneously with the presidential election next January.

In a primary election held recently in Gusau, Yahaya Tijjani Kaura polled 16,758 votes to defeat his main rival, Sahabi Yari Alhaji, who scored 1,465 votes. Another aspirant, Abdullahi Shinkafi, secured 1,447 votes.

The development follows a fresh primary election conducted after the Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto last month nullified the APC primary election for Zamfara North Senatorial District over gross non-compliance with the party’s guidelines and the Electoral Act.

Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye, who delivered the judgment, upheld the earlier decision of the Federal High Court in Gusau, which had nullified the primary election in August 2026.

The court further held that the respondent, Hon. Abdullahi Shinkafi, had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt. It also expressed strong reservations about how a senatorial district with 26,000 registered party members could return 70,000 votes for an aspirant.

Alhaji Sani Abdullahi, the Returning Officer of the APC Senatorial Primary Election Committee, who declared Kaura the winner and certified the results, noted that Kaura had satisfied the requirements of the APC Constitution and Guidelines and secured the highest number of votes.

The declaration formally returned Kaura as the APC’s senatorial candidate for Zamfara North Senatorial District.

Kaura’s victory, with a commanding margin of 15,293 votes over the second-placed aspirant, represents a decisive outcome in the rerun contest.