Zamfara APC Clears Air, Says It Has No Hand In Court’s Nullification Of PDP Primary Election

The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it knows nothing about the nullification of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election that produced Dr Dauda Lawal by the court.

Naija News reports that the clarification follows an alleged claim that the Zamfara APC worked with the federal and state governments to cancel the PDP’s primary election in the state.

The state APC said the PDP’s primary election in the state was cancelled by the court because of irregularities and disobedience to the rules of both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the party.

Recall that Naija News had reported on Tuesday that a Federal High Court sitting in Gusau, Zamafara state had barred the PDP from fielding a governorship candidate in Zamfara for the 2023 elections.

The court according to an order on Tuesday by Justice Aminu Bappa ruled that the PDP does not have a valid candidate for the Zamfara governorship election.

It nullified the May 25, 2022, primary election that produced Dauda Lawal as a candidate.

However, the Zamfara APC publicity secretary, Mallam Yusuf Idris, in a statement, said a non-existent ‘media office’ of the Lawal’s campaign organization with no signatory claimed that the court’s judgement was a ‘distraction strategy,’ supposedly by the federal government court and the APC in the state.

He advanced that the party understands that Lawal is taking his frustrations out on the APC, but to go ahead and blame the APC for being responsible for the internal crisis of the PDP in the state is unheard of.

Idris continued saying the APC wants to caution the PDP against spreading such unwholesome statements directed at governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle and the party.

The Zamfara APC told the PDP to go home and lick its wounds or better still take further legal action against its members that went to court to seek redress and stop joining issues with the APC.

He said “Meanwhile, as politicians, the APC closely watched the scenario until the court finally ruled that the primary election has been nullified and that the party should not present any candidate for the 2023 governorship election in the state.

“Naturally, the PDP went berserk, accusing the court, which is a federal government institution and both the APC and Zamfara government for their misery.

“A purported, non-existent ‘media office’ of the Dauda Lawal Dare campaign organization with no signatory claimed that the judgement was a ‘distraction strategy,’ supposedly by the federal government court and the APC in the state.

“Most disheartening was the reference to the APC as being behind an internal matter of the PDP and also the underlying attack on the APC that the PDP has “resolved to rescue Zamfara State from the shackles of clueless ness and poverty brought about by the ruling APC,’ and so on.

“We wish to caution the PDP against such unwholesome statements directed at the APC and Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle as we will not condone such in the future.”

The APC spokesperson, however, described Lawal as a businessman who does not know the rules of politics, adding that he was too desperate to become the governor of the state.

“It is in clear desperation to favour the recently ousted former flag bearer of the party in the state, Dr Dauda Lawal Dare, that some people were bent on the unfair attitude leading to some aggrieved members (aspirants) going to court to seek redress by challenging the process that gave birth to Lawal Dare as the governorship candidate,” Idris added.