The former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has alleged that the Nigerian government plotted the killings in Zamfara State in a bid to suspend general election from holding in the state in 2019.“I have been reliably informed that the FG is plotting to hide under the killings in Zamfara State by armed bandits to impose emergency rule on the state,” Fayose said on Wednesday.
“This is their response to the insistence of INEC not to allow APC field candidates for the 2019 general election in the state,” he added.
Fayose insisted that the killings were plotted by the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Nigerian government in other to declare an emergency rule in the state.
“With the emergency rule, there will only be Presidential and National Assembly elections in Zamfara in February next year while governorship and State House of Assembly elections will be postponed till May,” he said.
The former governor asked the federal government to “apologise to the people of Zamfara State, who were left at the mercy of armed bandits instead of using the killings to achieve political goal”
On October 10, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) banned the APC in Zamfara State from fielding candidates for the governorship, state and federal legislative positions in the 2019 elections.
The electoral body in a letter written to APC said the party failed to conduct primaries in the state before the October 7 deadline on the INEC calendar. INEC said that they received the report that no primary was conducted in Zamfara despite the full mobilization and deployment of the commission’s officials.
With factions and tussles within the Zamfara State chapter of the APC, the party was unable to come to a consensus on the preferred gubernatorial candidate for the party.
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The incumbent governor, Abdulaziz Yari, backed Shehu Idris as his successor while the Senator Kabiru Marafa, a governorship aspirant, stood against the governor’s plans to force a candidate on the party.
The warring in the state division made the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC announce the dissolution of Zamfara APC executives led by Alhaji Lawali M. Liman.
The dissolved executive still proceeded to hold primary elections that saw Idris win the governorship candidature while Yari emerged as the preferred senatorial candidate for Zamfara West senatorial zone.
However, the report submitted to the APC National headquarters by the Major General Abubakar Mustapha Gana-led Zamfara State Electoral Committee was that there was no primary in Zamfara State.
But more than two months after the primary in the state, tragedy stroke when unknown gunmen reportedly killed 17 people in the State.
The assault came just days after 25 people were killed in similar raids on two villages in the region.
Gunmen on motorcycles stormed Magami village in the Maradun district area of the state on Saturday, shooting indiscriminately as residents fled.
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