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Tag: Zamfara State

  • PDP alleges vote buying, ballot box snatching in Zamfara

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Gubernatorial candidate in Zamfara state, Dr. Bello Muhammad has revealed that there is inadequate supply of electoral materials in Kauran Namoda local government of the state.

    Bello alleged that there was only one hundred ballot paper in one of the ward and over one thousands for the presidential election explaining that when INEC commissioner was contacted by a PDP candidate they chased him away according to him it is a sign and a prelude to rigging.

    Muhammad disclosed this in an interview with newsmen after casting his vote at his ward, focal primary school polling unit, Maradun south in Maradun local government area of Zamfara state.

    Read Also: PDP accuses INEC of hoarding result sheets

    He further disclosed that he received a report of three ballot box snatching and that he witnessed where an APC councilor was sharing money and directing voters where exactly to thumb print.

    “Seven polling units were without electoral materials, we don’t know if INEC has compromised and is not ready for credible election and this is unacceptable, if there is no voting materials then there was no voting in these seven areas,” Muhammad explained.

  • 20 kidnapped, APC chairman killed in Zamfara

    Suspected bandits on Friday’s night killed the All Progressives Congress (APC) Dodon Daji ward chairman in Tsafe local government Alhaji Yusuf A.D.

    Locals said the town was cordoned by the bandits at about 8pm but started shooting until later when they had confirmed security operatives were not on sight.

    They also stated that over 20 locals were kidnapped.

    Read Also: Yari congratulates Zamfara APC candidates

    Police Public Relations Officer in Zamfara state SP M Muhammad Shehu confirmed the incident to our correspondent in a telephone chat in Gusau.

    He said the incident took place around 1:30 am, stating the Commissioner of Police Celestine Okoye visited the area in the early hours of Saturday for on the ground assessment, while urging people to be law abiding.

    While reacting to the incident, chairman of the local government council, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar described the assassination of the APC ward chairman as unfortunate.

    Abubakar linked the killing to the current security challenges facing the state.

    The PPRO disclosed that investigations were ongoing, assuring Police will do everything possible within the ambit of the law to bring the perpetrators to book.

  • INEC clears Zamfara APC for 2019 polls

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the All Progressives Congress in Zamfara State eligible to present candidates for the general elections, following a ruling by the Court of Appeal.

    The APC in the state had previously been barred from presenting candidates for the elections following the internal crisis in the party on account of which it could not carry out its primaries wihin the time span set by INEC.

    The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday overruled the lower court on technical ground.

    There had been two conflicting rulings from two courts of the same jurisdiction, one sitting in Zamfara and the other in Abuja.

    While the Zamfara court ruled in favour of the ruling party, the Abuja high court ruled against the party, which therefore forced INEC to take a decision.

    However, the Appeal Court ruling on Thursday has changed the narrative as INEC, in a statement signed by the National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said that the commiasion has complied with the court order.

    The statement reads: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has consistently maintained that it will always obey court judgments and orders.

    “ln the case of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State. the Federal High Court Abuja and the Zamfara State High Court issued conflicting orders relating to the participation of the APC in the two strands of elections scheduled for 23rd February and 9th March, 20l9.

    “While the former ruled that the APC, having failed to conduct party primaries, could not field candidates in the said election, the latter decided that it could field candidates, having conducted valid party primaries.

    “However, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Judicial Division on 21st February 2019 set aside thejudgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja for “lack or want of jurisdiction on the part on the lower court.”

    “This, in effect, means that the Zamfam State High Court’s decision that the APC can field candidates for the National Assembly, governorship and State Assembly elections is the only valid and subsisting order.

    “Consequently, the Commission has today, in compliance with the said order, restored the APC to the ballot in the National Assembly, govemorship and State House of Assembly elections scheduled for 23rd February and 9th March, 2019. “

  • Yari congratulates Zamfara APC candidates

    Zamfara state Governor Abdul Aziz Yari has congratulated all candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over their clearance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the rescheduled general elections.

    Yari, in a broadcast on Friday evening, said their clearance was an indication that the judiciary remains the last hope of the masses.

    Read Also: Buhari never called for violence in Zamfara, says Keyamo

    He urged voters to be peaceful and avoid acts capable of putting them in jeopardy.

    He assured that measures have been put in place to deal with whoever breaches peace before, during and after the elections.

    The governor spoke just as four political parties on Friday night pledged support for candidates of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Zamfara state.

    The parties are NRM, ANRP and ACD.

    One of the chairmen Nasiru Garba said the decision was informed by the developmental projects executed by the APC administration in the state and in the country at large under President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Chairman of the APC in Zamfara state, Lawan  Liman, pledged to make the new parties part of the decision-making mechanisms.

     

     

  • Zamfara APC:Marafa accepts Appeal Court’s decision

    The leader of one of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State,Senator Kabiru Marafa on Friday accepted Thursday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal that paved the way for the party to contest all elections in the state.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday said it had decided to relist the party’s candidates in the state for elections on account of the court’s ruling.

    “This is what Allah has decided and destined, we have accepted it,” Marafa said in a statement.

    He added: “We tried our best but Allah knows the wisdom behind this. I have said it, that whatever comes out from the court, we will open our hands and accept it as Allah’s will. What we are fighting is injustice and nothing personal.

    “I’m appealing to my teeming supporters to be law abiding and shun anything that would cause confusion and breach of public peace.

    “Please come out massively to vote for President Buhari. And for other elections vote for the candidates that will protect you and your properties in senatorial and house of representatives elections. Vote according to your conscience.

    “We have already filed an appeal at the Sokoto division of the appeal court. It will come up soon. We will pursue it to its logical conclusion.

    “I sincerely thank all the good people within and outside the state that supported us in standing up to the tyrannical tendencies of Gov Yari and his backers.”

  • 59 bandits killed as villagers, armed men clash in Zamfara

    Over 180 suspected bandits, on Tuesday, stormed Dan Jibga town in Tsafe Local Government Area and killed seven residents.

    Fifty-nine members of the bandits were killed by the residents.

    The clash reportedly lasted four hours.

    The villagers were said to be preparing to repel another attack by the bandits yesterday.

    Three vehicles conveying military personnel arrived the scene yesterday.

    Acting Force Information Officer, Major Clement K. Abiade, said he was aware of the incident and that the military was gathering information on the clash.

    He promised to address reporters after collating sufficient information on the incident from force headquarters.

    A villager, who identified himself as Chairman Malaha, said he sustained gunshot wounds from the bandits.

    He said the residents formed a resistance group to repel the bandits.

    Read also: My daughters are my biggest supporters – Mikel

    It was learnt that over 100 villagers from the same area were abducted while an unspecified others were killed.

    Danjibga is a village with flourishing businesses and affluent people.

    Its market day enjoys good patronage more than many others in the area.

    Recently, 15 women were abducted during a marriage ceremony when the bandits disguised as women attending the ceremony.

  • Electoral materials intercepted in Zamfara

    Two vehicles carrying election materials to Sokoto were separately intercepted in Gusaum, capital of Zamfara state capital on Tuesday afternoon.

    One of the vehicles was engage in an accident when it collided with two motorcycles along Sokoto road while the other was intercepted near Faru, a border town in Sokoto from Zamfara.

    However Zamfara Commissioner of Police Celestine Okoye, Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hajiys Asma’u Maikudi, Director of Department of State Security (DSS) and Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Yari at a joint media briefing on Tuesday’s evening disclosed the election materials were non- sensitive.

    Read Also: Zamfara: PDP faults AGF on letter to INEC

    According to Maikudi, the materials were meant to be dispatched to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) zonal office when the police intercepted it in a stop- and-search operation.

    She said it was only a polling unit booklet, which was offloaded by the contractor when the first vehicle conveying the materials became faulty.

    She further revealed that the contractor had to divide the materials into two vehicles.

  • Yari responsible for what led to polls postponement, says Marafa

    Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa (APC, Zamfara), on Sunday alleged that Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, should be held responsible for the sabotage that led to the postponement of the country’s general elections.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on the day of the presidential and national assembly elections, announced the postponement of the exercise by a week, blaming logistics challenges.

    Marafa in a statement on Sunday, while describing the postponement as unfortunate, said Yari should be held responsible for it.

    He said Yari boasted that if his candidates were not included in the ballot paper, there won’t be elections in the country.

    He said, “During the grand finale of his illegal campaign rallies in his hometown, Talata Mafara, Zamfara on Friday, 8th February, he rained abuses and said unprintable things on the person of INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood, and swore that unless his candidates are enlisted to contest,  there won’t be Elections in Zamfara state and the entire country. Now it has come to pass, what next?

    “I’m calling on the authorities to hold Yari and his accomplices responsible for this tresaonable sabotage against the country, Nigerians and humanity in general. Just search on the internet, including YouTube, you will see the stories and videos of where Yari stated emphatically that unless his candidates are accepted, elections won’t hold in zamfara state and Nigeria.”

    Marafa recalled that, “When Yari conducted illegal primaries, I drew the attention of Nigerians and the world on the dangers inherent in accepting that abuse of our laws, instead of being reprimanded, Yari went ahead to the courts to legalise his illegality. Today, the APC  has abandoned its earlier position, that its only had a consensus, to supporting Yari’s illegal election. This is very sad and unfortunate.

    “I am not surprised that immediately after the announcement of the postponement, Yari’s boys rushed to the media, radio stations jubilating that they have succeeded. This unfortunate incidence should be probed and condemned by all lovers of the country.

    This is the time to tell Yari and his co-travelers, that Nigeria is bigger than them and their collective ambitions.

    He added that, “Yari’s position, that if he doesn’t get it, nobody should, is against the teachings of Islam, our laws and morality combined.”

    Marafa, a leading APC governorship aspirant in Zamfara, said: ” only a positive pronouncement from the court of appeal, not the desperation of a satanic lawyer and a mad Gov or any body can change the status quo of Zamfara APC”

  • Zamfara: PDP faults AGF on letter to INEC

    Calls for free, fair, transparent poll

     

    The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) has faulted the Attorney General for the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami on his letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    In the said letter, Malami had advised INEC to postpone the general elections in Zamfara State, to accommodate a ruling of the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal, purportedly directing the electoral body to allow the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) field candidates for the upcoming elections.

    INEC had barred the state chapter of the APC from fielding candidates for elections for submitting names of its candidates after the expiration of the deadline prescribed by the Electoral Act.

    However, after series of legal rigmarole initiated by the leadership of the Zamfara APC, the Appeal Court purportedly gave the go ahead to the chapter to submit the lists of its candidates to INEC for the governorship and state assembly elections scheduled to hold on March 2.

    But in a swift reaction on Thursday, the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus described the AGF’s letter to INEC as part of APC’s design to arm-twist INEC and the judiciary to take illegal actions in their favour.

    Addressing a news conference at the Legacy House, the party’s Abuja campaign office, Secondus said what the AGF was seeking is not backed by law.

    According to the party chair, the AGF is an interested party in this matter and thus has no moral right to advice INEC.

    Secondus said, “The inability of the APC to field candidates due to self-inflicted crisis when other parties did within the stipulated period for the election is not covered by section 38 & 39 of the Electoral Act 2010 which the AGF is relying on for his dubious advice.

    “I, therefore, call on INEC to follow the dictates of the law and continue in its plan to achieve a credible election”, adding that the 2019 general elections, more than any other in the past, provide an opportunity for the country to get on the right path.

    “The challenge that we now face is one of expectation. Those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the expression of the people’s will is made manifest, have time and again failed to demonstrate good faith. We expect better than we are getting,

    “A sick narrative has emerged, one of systemic and systematic rigging, manipulation of the true record of the voters register and a cabal you can no longer trust with the trajectory and growth of our democracy and nation.

    “This is the evidence of bad faith by those managing the election and the government of the day”, Secondus said.

    The party chair accused the electoral body of failing to clean up its register of voters before it published same, against the practice under previous INEC administrations.

    He also faulted the voting arrangements put in place by the electoral body whereby accreditation and voting will go on simultaneously.

    It’s a departure from arrangements in previous elections where voters were first accredited and allowed to vote only after the end of the accreditation exercise.

    According to the party chairman, the new continuous voting regime this was meant to facilitate multiple voting by APC members in their numbers.

    Also, Secondus alleged that the voter register compiled by INEC contained data of dead voters for whom Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) were printed and distributed nationwide.

    Quoting official government data, the party chairman said the gross death rate in the country stood at 12.5 per 1000 lives, adding that from available evidence, over 1,050,051 dead persons would vote in the upcoming elections.

    “The decision that dead voters will cast ballots has been taken by INEC and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    The idea of ghost voters is consistent with the nature of this virtual President.

    “There has been a coordinated approach to register foreigners as voters, mainly from Niger and Cameroon. That is why INEC has established so many polling units along the borders with Cameroon and Niger. That is despite the fact that population data did not justify the move”, Secondus said.

    Read Also: APC, PDP in two-horse race: How the states may vote

    Speaking on Saturday’s presidential election, the party chairman cited multiple “intelligence sources” available to the PDP showing that the APC, in conjunction with INEC, through the ICT situation room, have concluded plans to manipulate the outcome of the election.

    He said, “By deliberately corrupting the INEC voter’s register to induce voter suppression in PDP strongholds and operations areas with the aim of disenfranchising at least four voters through corrupting of their four names on the voters register.

    “The strategy is to create artificial problems wherein at least four registered voters can be disfranchised in PDP strong hold areas. The target is to adequately limit the estimated members of PDP who would want to vote in their areas.

    “There is a deliberate ploy to disrupt Internet services and jam cell tower coverage ostensibly to prevent Nigerians from covering the elections via social media.

    “There is also confirmed intelligence showing that critical PDP players in this election are to be earmarked, arrested and quarantined to a particular location to give way for the elections to be rigged.

    “The other intelligence available to the party also shows that some uniforms of para-military and military operatives, particularly the Army and Police, have been produced in large numbers for use by civilians during the voting period.

    “To send faulty card reader machines to certain identified PDP strongholds and record a deliberate slow screening of voters to frustrate and discourage them.

    “They have packaged large sums of foreign currency to induce voters and security and INEC operatives.

    “We also have on good authority that all the electoral frauds via the ICT, which the APC has mapped out, are being coordinated by a highly placed government official (body bag) with the help of some foreigners inside an apartment in the government House and other locations in Kaduna state.

    “We have deep respect for our security personnel who are sworn to protect and defend our constitution and the integrity of our nation. President Buhari administration however, is determined to subvert the impartiality of our security agencies.

    “It has recently moved personnel to areas along the borders, where they will be employed to create violence, stuff ballots and aid non-Nigerians to vote in a predetermined manner”.

    Secondus also alleged extravagant use of money at APC campaigns through advertisements, billboards and the use of state media as an instrument of the party, adding that the use of public resources for partisan purposes is unprecedented.

    The chairman similarly faulted the decision by INEC not to transmit election results electronically, saying this was caused by the refusal of President Buhari to sign the law that would have made this possible.

     

  • Militants were unleashed on my government, says Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday revealed that militants were unleashed against his government in the early days of the administration.

    He made the remark during the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential campaign mega rally in Abuja.

    Buhari said: “When we came, the price of crude from over $100 average, went down to $37 and $38 and then the militants were unleashed on this administration but we have all now overcome those difficulties.

    From the little resources available to his administration, he said it has achieved a lot in terms of provision of critical infrastructure in various sectors of the economy across the country.

    Accordingly, he said the government has recorded great achievements on the campaign promises it made in 2015, including security, economy and the fight against corruption.

    He said: “I want to remind everybody where the country was before we came in in May 2015 where we are now and what we have been able to do with the resources available to us.

    “You residents of Abuja know a lot of our three fundamental campaign aspirations security, economy and fighting corruption.

    “Insecurity, the people of the northeast and the people of Abuja can know much better. Book Haram were holding more than 17 local governments in the northeast when we came, they are not holding any local government now.

    “But what they are doing is indoctrinating young men and women, wrap them up with explosives and send them to soft targets, mosques, marketplaces, motor parks and so on.

    “And then, we had the problem of herders and stagnant farmers in Benue state that we have looked after it. The problem of people who are just looking for trouble and they find something from you, especially in Zamfara state.

    Read also: Buhari, not sit-tight President – Oshiomhole

    “Those two are being looked after by the security agencies. On the economy, we are very lucky, but unfortunately, Nigeria has been underestimated.

    “We had in agriculture in the last three years since we came. What the government did was to get partners that are available at half the price it used to be and thank God we hardly import rice now, more than 90 percent of rice import has stopped and the money we realized, we are ploughing it back to infrastructure.” he said

    The President went on: “You know the condition of our roads, you know the condition of the railway, it was virtually killed and you know there was no power.

    “The previous government admitted without anybody asking them that they spent $16 billion on power. You know more than I do. Where is the power, where is the money? Stolen.

    “My point will come, when I talk about bribery and corruption which is the third undertaking we made, those people who said they spent $16 billion on power eventually they will account for it.

    “We are under a system now those who have been given responsibilities in the three tiers of government, the centre and the state government and if they abuse it we will ask the security agencies to investigate and prosecute them.

    “We have already done so in a number of cases, you know it, they came and bought properties here in Abuja, they invested outside the country.

    “We are appealing to the countries, Europe and America to help us recover the looted funds and property which we are putting back to build infrastructure with the resources available to us.

    “We were doing that militants were unleashed on us but we have now overcome those difficulties and now building infrastructure. If you give us the next four years, I assure you, you will not regret it.”