The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa (APC, Zamfara), has said the ruling by the Court of Appeal nullifying Zamfara All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries, earlier upheld by the Tribunal, has restored hope in the judiciary.
While hailing the Court of Appeal ruling, he insisted that “no APC primary election was conducted in his state.”
According to him, neither the state governors nor state party leaders are empowered by the law to conduct primaries in their states.
Speaking to State House Correspondents at the weekend, he refuted claims that he was a spoiler of APC chances in the state, insisting that the outgoing governor, “Abdulaziz Yari should be blamed for bringing shame to the party and to the state.”
He said: “The truth is there was no primaries in Zamfara; the world knows, Allah knows, the angel knows, everybody knows, and the Court of Appeal has just done justice to that.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank the President of the Court of Appeal for the excellent job she did. You know, we were quite apprehensive from the beginning, fearing that we might not get justice.
“But they have done justice to that case and they have made judiciary proud and the people of Nigeria proud. If that has not been done, I was afraid where we were heading to.”
Speaking on the way forward, Marafa said: “Well, there is still one last option left. It depends on what our opponents feel. There is the Supreme Court option. If they are desirous of exploiting that, they are constitutionally, legally allowed to do so. If they are not, so be it. Before, they were dragging us, but we are now dragging them. We are not pleading with them not to go to the Supreme Court.
“The most important thing that Nigerians need to know is that we are not the aggressors as far as these problems are concerned. We are defending ourselves, defending the people of Zamfara State.”
On allegation that he was playing the role of a spoiler rather than allow things be since the national leadership of the APC endorsed it, Marafa said, “Is the national leadership of the APC equal to Nigeria? The answer is ‘no’. We are talking about the laws of Nigeria and not talking about personalities.
“No matter how big you are, you cannot circumvent the law. You cannot break the law by your right hand and then use your left hand to say you want to amend it. You cannot commit a criminality then you will approach the court and say ‘court legalize it for me’.
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