Taiye Odewale
Abuja
The feud between Zamfara state governor, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar and senator representing Zamfara Central, Kabiru Marafa over nominee for the position of Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the state got worsened yesterday with Marafa alleging that Governor Yari is not an indigene of the state.
The Senate had, based on recommendation by its committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), refused confirmation of nomination of Barr Ahmad Bello Mahmud as REC nominee for the state on the strength of petition written to that effect by governor Yari.
Yari, in the petition addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari in March this year and copied the Senate leadership, alleged that the nominee was not an indigene of the state.
But Marafa, in a third spirited attempt to make the Senate change its position, declared that “the Governor himself, based on available records on his ancestral roots, is not an indigene of the state but elected as governor because he was born and brought up there the same way the rejected REC nominee was born and brought up in Gusau , the capital of the state.”
Marafa, who rose through Orders 1 and 127 of the Senate Standing Rules, argued that, for any petition to be admitted and acted upon by the Senate, there must be an affidavit to that effect, which he said was not made available by the governor in his petition against Ahmed Mahmud.
“Mr President, we cannot go against our rules and in doing so, we need to put the nomination of Ahmad Mahmud as Zamfara REC nominee to voice votes again because governor Yari who claimed that the man is not from the state did not swear to any affidavit to that effect in his petition.
“Besides, governor Yari himself, going by available records on his ancestral roots , is also not an indigene of the state but somebody born and brought up in the state, the same way Barr Ahmad Mahmud rose to be known as a resident of the state, who has also served the state in different capacities,” he said.
But the Senate President in his ruling, just noted Marafa’s point of order by urging him to allow the Senate committee already mandated by the upper chamber to reconsider the nomination of the embattled nominee, come up with its report.
