The senator representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Kabir Marafa, has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission for maintaining its earlier position on the rejection of the All Progressives Congress candidates from Zamfara State.
Marafa, who is also the chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend his proposed campaign slated for Gusau, the state capital, on Sunday.
The senator, who addressed journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said he would personally submit a letter to President Buhari urging him to stay away from the presidential campaign already slated for Sunday.
“I urge President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend his proposed campaign to Zamfara State on Sunday. I will personally hand over a letter on the matter to him.
“However, if the President insists on going for the rally in Zamfara on Sunday, there is no problem. Let (Governor) Yari hold his rally on Sunday, we will organise our own later and people will see who the people are supporting.
“We don’t care if the President attends our own rally later or not. We will organise a mega rally that will be given live coverage so that the whole World will see that we are very popular among our people.”
Marafa, who is also a governorship aspirant of the APC in the state, said INEC has done the right thing by maintaining its position on the issue of APC primaries in Zamfara State.
A Zamfara State High Court presided over by Justice Muhammad Shinkafi had last week Friday in Gusau, delivered a judgment which asked the INEC to allow the APC candidates to participate in the election.
Same day, a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu in Abuja held that the electoral body acted within its powers to reject the list of candidates presented to it by the party
However, INEC in a statement by its National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, on Wednesday, after studying the two judgments, decided to maintain its earlier position on the matter.
Specifically, the commission said, “the commission has decided to maintain its original position that the party in question did not conduct primaries, therefore, in line with Section 87 of the Electoral Act of 2010 ( as amended), not eligible to field candidates.”
He said, “This shows that the commission is not doing the bidding of any of the parties involved in our intra-party squabble. From the beginning, the commission took a weighty but truthful position on the Zamfara APC primaries logjam, despite the fact that our party is the ruling political party.
“The development has shown that the commission will conduct credible, fair and transparent polls. We are urging the commission to always stand by the truth, no matter who is involved.”
Punch
