The All Progressives Congress (APC) Zamfara State chapter has cautioned Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal to stop harassing lawmakers and involving the judiciary in a witch hunt against members for forming a parallel assembly.
In a statement by the state publicity secretary, Yusuf Idris Gusau, yesterday, he said the government of Zamfara State has continued to witch hunt the nine elected members of the state House of Assembly by allegedly using a chief magistrate to order their arrest without any summons.
The statement reads in part, “We at the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC have found it disturbing and embarrassing how the state government is using the machinery of the judiciary to attack constitutionally elected members of the state House of Assembly for executing their legislative functions and pointing out where the executive is wrong in the discharge of its responsibilities for the public interests.
“Even though a case is pending in the Court of Appeal, Sokoto in addition to a petition written to the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the DSS, the National Security Adviser, the National Assembly and other stakeholders by the aggrieved lawmakers extracted from both the ruling PDP and opposition APC in the state, the Magistrate Court went ahead to order for the arrest of the members without any charge nor summon.
“We are therefore calling on the state government under Governor Dauda Lawal to stop this harassment, sit with the aggrieved members and amicably resolve the crisis in order to move forward.
“The APC no doubt will continue to be on the right side of the law and will not allow judicial officers to be politicized and used against public interests.
“The party will resist any attempt to witchunt the members just for voicing out the security situation of their various constituencies, which the Zamfara State government failed to address.
“We are calling on the members to petition the Judicial Service Commission against the politically motivated court order illegally granted by the Magistrate in order to serve as a lesson to other judicial officers,” the statement added.
In a separate statement, the members of the parallel assembly also stated that they will continue to struggle for their rights, as no amount of intimidation can derail their Focus.
A statement issued by one of its members, Hon Aliyu Ango Kagara, who represents Talata-Mafara South Constituency, said the parallel House, under the leadership of Hon. Bashar Aliyu Gummi, stands firm in the struggle to defend its legitimate rights.
“We in the Zamfara State parallel House of Assembly under the eminent leadership of Hon. Bashar Aliyu Gummi wish to categorically state and inform the good people of the state that we shall continue to work in the spheres of our mandate as lawmakers of our dear state and representatives of our respective constituents.
“No amount of intimidation from the state government, including the use of some so-called politically twisted courts or legal officers, can derail our focused leadership.
“We are aware of the malicious actions against us by the state government and have written petitions against the Dauda Lawal led administration to security agencies both at the state and national levels and approached stakeholders who mean well to both the state and our good people on all the situation and flagrant abuse of law by the other faction of the state House of Assembly under Hon. Bilyaminu Moriki which suspended us, some of us for over a year now without recourse to the constitution and the law.
“We are also aware and in possession of recorded planned attack on us and our families by some thugs close to the governor and have alerted the security on these, in case anything happens to anyone of us (individually or collectively).
“While the state government mandated some past leaders of the state House of Assembly to meet and discuss with us towards resolving the crisis and while we have a pending case at the Appeal Court, Sokoto, it hurriedly went to a lower court to seek for our arrest without any charge which was wrongly granted by a presiding Justice Halima Jaafar Mikaila who decided to treat us as criminals.
“Because it was haphazardly processed, one of the dates on the said court order is even reading the year 2024, while Justice Halima Jaafar Mikaila who prides herself as a legal officer failed to even indicate who she ordered to arrest us, unless if she meant the arrest to be carried out by the governor’s attack squad mentioned above.
“Our stance on the respect to the rule of law by all arms of government in the state remains unshaken, we are not afraid of all the threats, nor shall we be deterred on our mandate.
