Zamfara: Kaura wins fresh APC primary

By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA: The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has returned a former senator, Yahaya Tijjani Kaura as its candidate for the Zamfara North Senatorial District, after he polled 16,758 votes in a fresh primary held on Monday in Gusau. The rerun followed a Court of Appeal judgment in Sokoto which nullified the party’s earlier primary for the district.

The Returning Officer of the APC Senatorial Primary Election Committee, Alhaji Sani Abdullahi, declared Kaura the winner and certified the result. Abdullahi said Kaura met the requirements of the APC Constitution and Guidelines and secured the highest number of votes. Kaura, a chieftain of the party in Zamfara State, beat his closest rival, Sahabi Ya’u Alhaji, who scored 1,465 votes.

A third aspirant, Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi, scored 1,447 votes. Kaura’s winning margin over the second-placed aspirant was 15,293 votes. The declaration formally makes Kaura the APC’s flag-bearer for the National Assembly seat in Zamfara North. The National Assembly elections are to hold simultaneously with the presidential election in January. The fresh primary was ordered after the Court of Appeal in Sokoto set aside the earlier exercise for gross non-compliance with the party’s guidelines and the Electoral Act.

Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye, who delivered the ruling, upheld the earlier decision of the Federal High Court in Gusau. That court had voided the first primary in August 2026. The court held that the respondent, Hon. Abdullahi Shinkafi, 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.