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Senator: Zamfara APC crisis still unresolved

 Onyedi Ojiabor, Abuja

 

A SUIT filed by former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari against the All Progressives Congress (APC) prepared the ground for the party’s 2019 electoral loss in the state, it was learnt yesterday.

A former APC governorship aspirant in the state and two-time senator, Kabiru Garba Marafa, stated this while addressing reporters in Abuja.

The APC won the governorship election, the three senatorial and seven House of Representatives elections in the state.

The party dramatically lost the seats due a series of suits that trailed the party’s primaries.

Specifically, the legal battle between Marafa’s and Yari’s camps over the primaries made the Supreme Court to rule against the primaries.

The apex court’s ruling turned the table in favour of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which is currently governing the state.

Marafa, who played a key role in the legal tussle, was accused of acting as a spoiler in the political development.

But the erstwhile senator for Zamfara Central insisted that it was Yari that laid the foundation for APC’s loss.

He said: “With due respect to him (Yari), he was the aggressor. He was the one that wanted to retire me. I only fought back. He wanted to retire me and I protested.

“Let me make it very clear: Yari was the one that went to court, not Marafa. He conducted the primaries by himself as against the committee that was sent from Abuja to conduct the exercise. After conducting the primaries, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told him that he didn’t have the powers under our laws to conduct the primaries because the committee that was sent to conduct primaries said it didn’t do the primaries.

“He (Yari) went to the lower court to compel the party to forward the names of his candidates to INEC. He won. I protested by appealing the judgment. The three judges unanimously queried the lower court for even attempting to consider what they did, and threw the thing out. Again, Yari appealed to the Supreme Court. You can see. I did one; he started, and he did two, altogether.

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“Then, after the Supreme Court, he went back to the apex court. I’m asking: in the light of these explanations, who is the spoiler?”

Marafa who also insisting that he did not protest to give the PDP the opportunity to govern Zamfara State, queried: “When did self-defense become a crime to the extent that one will be called a spoiler?”

He added: “Somebody comes to your house to kill you and inherit your wealth, children and money and you rise up to defend your family, money, and your life. You kill him and somebody says you are now a spoiler. That is what happened.

“I was a senator and I was desirous of re-contesting, either as a senator or a governor. Somebody said I could not. He refused to follow due process. He didn’t follow the constitution and extant laws.

“Then, I said you can’t do that. This is what the law says. He said no, and I stood up to fight for myself. In the end, you are calling me a spoiler. God will never forgive anybody that says that.”

 

Source: thenationonlineng.net