Zamfara APC crisis requires intervention of key stakeholders – Former Minister

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The former Minister of State for Information, Hon. Ikra Bilbis has said the crisis rocking the Zamfara chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which resulted in a parallel Congress, requires the intervention of key stakeholders of the party in the State.

The former minister, in a press statement he personally signed, said the situation requires the intervention of party leaders, otherwise all the years of toil and sacrifice made to build the party will be in vain.

“I say this with all sense of responsibility given my deep knowledge of how the party birthed at the national level and became accepted by the people of Zamfara and sufficiently aware of those whose contributions have strengthened and fortified the party to the level that it does not lose a single seat in all elections in the state.

“But events in the recent past have called for a review of how the affairs of the party are being conducted in Zamfara leading to strife, disorder and formation of factions which culminated in a purported ward congress of the APC in the state.

“It is however instructive that after the purported ward congress, one of the leading members of the party, Senator Kabiru Marafa has come out to challenge the legality of the exercise describing it as ‘’dead on arrival’’.

“Senator Marafa drew his conclusions based on the fact that the rules guiding the conduct of congresses were not adhered to.

“As he pointed out, the APC by holding the ward congress in Zamfara, is in material breach of key provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC Constitution.

“This is because Section 85 of the Electoral Act made it mandatory that INEC must be given a notice of 21 days before holding a congress, a process which was not adhered to by the APC in the case of Zamfara.

“The flouting of the laws portends grave danger for the APC as any process emanating from that can be challenged in court and the APC will be the loser again if that should happen.

“Even more frightening is the legality of holding a congress in defiance to a court order suspending all activities of the party at levels in the state.

“It is well known that some members of the APC in Zamfara are in court challenging the dissolution of the executive committee of the party in the state and the court while hearing the case, has suspended all activities of the party in at all levels in the state pending the determination of the case.