From Maiharaji Altine
The Zamfara state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the state’s House of Assembly to rescind its decision of declaring the seat of the minority leader of the house of Assembly as vacant or face court action.
Recall that, the Zamfara state House of Assembly has yesterday (Tuesday) declared the seat of the Honourable member of the House representing Talata-Mafara South Constituency Honourable Aliyu Ango Kagara as vacant for being absent from the house where he attended only 21 out of 180 sittings.
In its reaction, the state chapter of the APC said, the action of the lawmakers to declare the seat of Honourable Kagara has contravened the constitutional provisions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and vowed to take legal action to reverse the decision.
In a statement issued to newsmen, the spokesperson of the APC, Yusuf Idris said, “Before declaring or removing any member, it requires constitutional interpretation and certain processes that must be followed and not an arbitrary announcement by the lawmakers.
Yusuf said, “The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for the immediate rescinding of the purported declaration as vacant, the seat of the Minority Leader and member representing Talata Mafara South Constituency, Hon Aliyu Ango Kagara as vacant by the state House of Assembly under the leadership of Hon. Bilyaminu Ismail Moriki”.
“It is an embarrassment and abuse of office, as well as a move to weed out the APC from the state assembly”.
Idris said, the action of the state House of Assembly was politically motivated aimed at silencing the opposition in the House.
Idris explained that, the same House of Assembly has suspended nine other APC members from the House on 8th January last year without recourse to the constitutional provision or House standing rules.
“All the salaries and allowances of the affected Honourable members were withheld just for voicing out their constituents security challenges before the house which became a crime against the house leadership”. Said Idris.
He maintained that majority of the lawmakers who are mainly from the PDP have been fighting and terrorizing even their own members who refused to dance to their tunes.
He stressed that, the members who expected Kagara’s seat to be declared vacant were either ignorant or adamant to the fact that he was inaugurated as a member representing Talata Mafara South on 8th June, 2023.
He stressed that, for member to be punished for violation of the House rules, he must be given fair hearing before taking any action against him.
“Any member found in violation of the House rules must be given fair hearing before taking any action and not the action of those members who think their uniformed act will hold water”.
He debunked the claim by the house that Honourable Kagara did not complete the required sittings of the House, adding that, “The House has been on recess for several months due to ongoing renovations”.
“The legislative year’s span from June to June is four years and 2023 has ended”.
“We are now in the second legislative year from June 2024 to June 2025 which is six moths old with the house currently on recess since September last year”.
“Due to ongoing renovation of the House which even trapped the 2025 Appropriation bill presentation, compelling it into a matter of public importance and reopened the house to allow the Governor present the budget proposal before it.
“Because of their selfish interests, they deliberately forgot that in the second legislative year, the House only sat for two months because in the first four months, they were on renovation recess while the remaining six months, are yet to come and for which they don’t have the knowledge of seeing but they blindly went ahead and declared vacant a ranking house member’s seat who was elected into the House for the fourth time”.
Idris therefore asked the state lawmakers to explain to the electorate how many times they sat to take effective decisions in the House of Assembly which has been moving from one place to another and only come together on a short notice to meet in secretive manners and take the bidding of their master who has since turned them into rubber stamps that are only convenient to some PDP members.
“The APC as a party while calling on the National Assembly to call the Zamfara State House of Assembly to order, wishes to caution the state legislature over this matter that may lead to taking them to court with claims of damages and order for apologies”. Concluded Idris.
