ZAMFARA: Defect to APC, lose your seat, Yari warns Matawalle

A FORMER governor of the state, Alhaji AbulAziz Yari, has reminded the state governor, Bello Matawalle, that he is bound to serve out his term as governor of the state as a member of the People’s Democratic Party going by the Supreme Court’s verdict that brought him to power in 2019.

Yari noted that failure to do so would make his successor lose his seat as governor of Zamfara State.

Yari spoke at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress in Gusau on Sunday, during the distribution of N1.3bn assorted grains he purchased for the APC supporters as Ramadan gift.

Represented by Senator Kabiru Marafa, the former governor spoke against the background of the rumour making the rounds that Matawalle is planning to dump the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said nobody had informed them either verbally or in writing that Matawalle was defecting to the APC.

He, however, cautioned that the apex court nullified the election of the APC candidates in 2019 and announced the PDP candidates as winners who would remain in power till 2023.

“As such, until after that period, any PDP elected officer who defects to another party must also vacate his seat going by the court’s judgment,” Yari said.

Though Matawalle has not publicly admitted that he is planning to defect to the APC.
Speculations about his defection became rife following his recent meeting with three APC governors, led by the Chairman of the APC National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni.

The Zamfara governor, however, hinted at his defection when he was visited weeks later by some of his counterparts in the PDP.

He said he was almost abandoned by the PDP governors, lamenting that, “a crying child abandoned by his mother is likely to take food from a street beggar.”

Reacting to his successor’s rumoured defection, Yari said Matawalle was being misled by some people to join the APC “forgetting the circumstances that have made him to become the governor of the state.”

Matawalle became the governor of Zamfara through the verdict of the Supreme Court.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Muktar Idris of All Progressives Congress as winner of Zamfara governorship election held on March 9, 2019.

Announcing the result, the Returning Officer, Prof. Kabir Bala, said, Muktar secured 534,541 votes out of the 810,782 votes cast across the 14 local government areas of the state while Bello Matawalle of People’s Democratic Party PDP came second with 189,452.

The participation of the candidates of the APC in the governorship, National Assembly and the State House of Assembly was, however, invalidated by the Supreme Court on the ground that the candidates were not properly nominated as required by law; holding that no valid primaries were conducted by the APC in Zamfara State.

The apex court had in the judgment delivered by Tanko Muhammad, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) held that votes cast for candidates who ought not to have participated in an election are wasted votes that cannot be used in determining outcome of an election.

The court, therefore, declared Matawalle who came second as the duly elected governor of the state.

Meanwhile, there are speculations that the planned defection of the governor is not because of any quarrel within the PDP but due to permutations on securing a guarantee for a second term in office by 2023.

Apart from the second-term calculations, it is said that a former Governor of the state, Alhaji Ahmed Sani Yerima, now senator representing Zamfara West, as well as Deputy Minority Leader in the Senate, also wants to use Matawalle to dislodge his predecessor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari.

By the permutation, Matawalle would be in charge of the APC structure, to ensure his second-term electoral victory and as a prelude to dislodging Yari.

Going by this speculation, the warning issued by Yari against Matawalle was done to prevent his 2023 ambition from being scuttled.