Court judgement: I have forgiven APC — Yari

Gov. Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara says he has forgiven the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the unfair treatment it meted out to the state chapter of the party.

Yari, who spoke after leading the Zamfara APC governorship candidate, Mukhtar Idris, to a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday, said the court had vindicated Zamfara APC.

He said that the party was not fair to the Zamfara state chapter over the controversy that surrounded the state governorship primary election.

The Zamfara State High Court 3 sitting in Gusau on Friday upheld the primary election conducted by the state chapter of APC.

The state APC chapter had on Oct. 11, 2018, filed a case before the court praying it to compel the APC national headquarters and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the primary election it conducted on Oct. 7, 2018.

The national headquarters of the APC had earlier declared that there was no primary election of the party in the state.

“Some other people are saying that the reign of Yerima and Abdulaziz for 20 years is over in Zamfara State but I believe Almighty God to give power to whomsoever he desires to give and he promised to sustain the power as long you uphold justice.

“I use this opportunity to call on the party; the crisis didn’t die at the party level. I can say the party has not done justice to us, but we have forgiven it; in a democracy, there is a process.

“Section 87, 1 to 14 of the Electoral Act is very clear on what should be done; so, in our case, we were denied many things but as I said earlier, we have forgiven and we are going to continue.

“You remember, from October, 2018, we have been struggling on whether there is primary or no primary in Zamfara State by INEC and we believe we have undergone all the processes.

“Today, God did it once again for us by giving us victory—the court accepted that Zamfara State APC has conducted its primaries based on the evidence presented before that court.”

The governor said that Zamfara people were happy with the judgment and would vote massively for APC in the forthcoming elections.

He also commended INEC, in spite of what he described as conflicting statements from the commission’s national office and its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

“The state REC went around and supervised as allowed by the law. Unfortunately, the INEC headquarters did not wait to receive the report by the REC there and it went ahead with a pronouncement.

“Anyway, we secured the certified true copy and presented before the court and I think it is the document that supported the court in its process to pass the judgment in our favour,” he said.

Yari said that Zamfara State was 100 per cent APC and would deliver, adding that the opposition knew it stood no chance in the state.