Marafa accuses Yari of sponsoring anti-Oshiomhole protests

The lawmaker representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District, Senator Kabiru Marafa, has faulted the Thursday protests in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, calling for the removal of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Adams Oshiomhole.

Marafa, in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, dismissed the protests by some members of the APC in Zamfara on Thursday as sponsored.

The senator alleged that the protesters were mobilised by Governor Abdulaziz Yari “following his inability to bend rules to impose candidates who are his cronies on the party in the state.”

Marafa, who is a leading governorship aspirant on the platform of  the APC in Zamfara, said Yari, and not Oshiomhole, should be sacked. He said the National Chairman of the APC is a law-abiding leader.

He said the money allegedly spent by Yari to organise the protests should have been channelled towards securing the release of 17 persons, including two young girls, kidnapped in Dauran, Jangebe, Magami and other locations in the state.

Marafa said, “Yari and his co-travellers are wrong and Comrade Oshiomhole is right as far as the issues in the party are concerned. The money spent on the protests should have been used to assist the security agencies in the state to rescue the abducted persons. The governor has (allegedly) stopped assisting security agencies with fund in the state in the last five months.”

The lawmaker said that majority of APC members in Zamfara were behind Oshiomhole and the leadership of the party.

Recalling the genesis of the Zamfara APC crisis, the lawmaker insisted that primaries were not conducted in Zamfara and that there was no consensus either.

He said, “There was a court order that says all parties should not take any step that will render useless the litigation before it. The party under the able leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole respected the order and said all parties in the crisis should steer clear.  The party and its leadership should be commended for respecting the law, a foundation upon which the APC was built.

“Two, when the committee of the National Working Committee came to conduct the primary in Zamfara, violence orchestrated by Yari’s people erupted and the committee was forced to cancel the election. This is also a valid thing. The position taken by the governor that primaries should be conducted by the executives in his camp was irresponsible, contemptuous and height of lawlessness.

“The crux of the matter is that there was no election and there was no consensus in Zamfara. So, we are commending Comrade Oshiomhole and INEC for respecting the court order.”

Enugu chapter disagrees with VON DG, Okechukwu

Meanwhile, the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has faulted the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, over his recent attacks on the party’s national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Okechukwu, an APC chieftain from Enugu State, had said Oshiomhole promoted impunity in the party.

The VON DG made the accusation while protesting against the outcome of the APC primary elections in Enugu and some other parts of the country.

Okechukwu lost out in the primary election for Enugu West Senatorial District, a contest which he was widely tipped to win.

Reacting to Okechukwu’s attacks on Oshiomhole, Chairman of the APC in Enugu, Dr Ben Nwoye, appealed to the VON DG to refrain from ‘pulling the party down’ due to the outcome of the Enugu West senatorial primary election.

Nwoye noted that Okechukwu played a major role when the APC in Enugu State endorsed Oshiomhole before his election as the party’s national chairman.

He insisted that the state chapter of the party retain confidence in Oshiomhole’s ability to lead the APC, despite Okechukwu’s claims.

“Taking on the national chairman is not a way to unify our party, while he (Okechukwu) expected to win, he is entitled to file a petition after he lost.

“When he exhausts the internal mechanisms in the party, he is entitled to go to court, if he chooses to.

“But we cannot say now let us destroy APC because certain persons failed to emerge victorious from the primaries. We are begging Okechukwu that making unguarded utterances out of anger is not good for progress, and it is not a way to project the APC in Enugu State.

He added, “Oshiomhole has performed very well; in the time he has been in office, we have won gubernatorial and senatorial elections.

“He was a man the Enugu State APC endorsed, and Enugu State APC still endorses Oshiomhole’s leadership,” Nwoye said while briefing journalists on the activities of a reconciliation committee set up to ‘placate’ aggrieved aspirants in the state.

Nwoye wondered what was the ‘basis’ for Okechukwu’s call for a probe into the call logs of some of the chairmen and members of state primary election panels, most of whom Okechukwu said were from Edo State, like Oshiomhole.

Nwoye noted that those calling for Oshiomhole’s removal did not have the interest of the party at heart.

He added that such persons also lacked the capacity to remove the APC national chairman.

Stressing that Okechukwu ‘is a highly respected leader’ of the APC, Nwoye noted that the VON DG would continue to be relevant in the affairs of the party.

“You cannot tear down the house you built just because you lost an election; losing an election is a normal thing, but in a democratic election, you don’t celebrate your victory until the result is out,” he said.

The Enugu APC chairman further insisted that the party’s primaries in the state were credible.

He expressed concerns that Okechukwu’s ‘outbursts’ could weaken the party’s electoral fortune in Enugu State.

“Osita Okechukwu is overreacting a little bit, it is like he is taking the loss a little too hard; if he goes on and on it will affect our electoral fortune – calling our gubernatorial candidate names does not help,” Nwoye said.

But reacting to Nwoye’s comments, Okechukwu said the Enugu APC chairman was merely ‘protecting his job’ in the face of a lawsuit filed against him by the party’s ‘factional chairman’ in the state, Deacon Okey Ogbodo.

Okechukwu said, “He has no option but to defend the indefensible.

Ask him whether anyone from Enugu State is chairman of a panel of any sort, while Edo State has almost 30 per cent of the total of 37 chairmen of primary election panels.

”I can understand where he is coming from; he is defending his factional leadership. He wants Oshiomhole to recognise him as the chairman.

“He is not fighting Osita Okechukwu, he is fighting a factional war.”

Coalition asks INEC to revisit APC fate in Zamfara

Meanwhile, the Coalition of Democratic Watchdog of Nigeria has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to revisit the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress from fielding candidates for elective positions in Zamfara for the 2019 general elections.

The National Coordinator of the coalition, Mr Bob Opara, made the call at a press conference on Thursday in Abuja while reacting to the development.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that INEC had on October 10 said APC was not eligible to field candidates for governorship, National Assembly and state Assembly positions in Zamfara for the 2019 elections.

The commission in a letter signed by Okechukwu Ndeche, its acting Secretary, said the APC was not qualified to field candidates because it failed to conduct primaries in Zamfara within the stipulated time frame.

The APC National Chairman, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, while reacting to the development, had insisted that the party held primaries in Zamfara contrary to INEC`S stance.

He, however, said that primary election was not the only mode prescribed for producing party candidates for elections in the 2010 amended Electoral Act.

Opara, however, stressed that the APC had held primaries in Zamfara contrary to INEC`s position, adding that it was in the nation’s interest for the commission to rectify the disqualification ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“In line with the provisions of Section 153 of the 2010 amended Electoral Act, INEC is empowered to make regulations governing any election.

“In this instance, INEC’s stipulation that party primaries should end on October 7 was adhered to.

“The international community is also watching with keen interest how an entire state controlled by the ruling APC is barred from fielding candidates in a primary that was well conducted,” he said.

He added that the coalition had been monitoring events following the fallout of the APC primary elections held on October 3 and October 4 in Zamfara.

Opara maintained that the APC held primaries in Zamfara in the presence of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner; two assistant Inspectors-General of Police; the commissioner of police in the state and the Director of the Department of State Services in the state, among others.

He said the primaries were held across the 147 wards that made up the 16 local government areas of the state.

He said violence, however, erupted in seven wards out of the 147 wards of the state.

This, the coalition coordinator said, led to the cancellation of elections in affected local government areas which later held the next day, October 4.

He wondered why INEC was in a hurry to issue a statement disqualifying the APC from fielding candidates for Zanfara in the coming 2019 general elections while the primaries were ongoing.