Controversy trails disruption of Zamfara PDP congress

• Yari, Marafa condemn attack as deputy gov demands apology from Matawalle 

• Its internal wrangling – APC

The disruption of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congress in Zamfara State by suspected thugs has stirred allegations and counter-allegations dominating the political scene.

On Monday, suspected thugs disrupted the congress, damaging canopies and other items at the venue of the event in the Samaru area of Gusau. Party chieftains were chased away by the thugs.

The deputy governor of the state, Barrister Mahadi Aliyu Gusau, blamed the governor for the attack, demanding for an apology.

“We expect Governor Matawalle to come out and apologise or point out the people responsible for this act or he would be held complacent in this bizarre act. If this is what is happening in Gusau metropolis, I wonder what those in rural communities are going through

“It should be clear that opposition politics is not allowed in Zamfara State. It is really appalling and mindboggling. I’m highly embarrassed by this act. To be fair, PDP should be allowed to carry out its activities because we have not done anything out of the law,” he said.

However,  the All Progressives Congress (APC) through its publicity secretary in the state, Yusuf Idris Gusau,  said it was aggrieved members of the PDP that caused the confusion. 

“It was some of its aggrieved members that disrupted its congress because they resisted candidate imposition particularly those seeking chairmanship and secretary of the party.

“PDP is trying tooth and nail to drag APC into its crisis when it is a well-known fact to all Zamfara people that PDP has a long history of political thuggery since the return of democracy,” he said.

The former governor Abdulaziz Yari’s faction of the APC has condemned the disruption of the PDP congress, describing it as undemocratic and uncivilized.

Publicity secretary of the faction, Alhaji Ibrahim Muhammad Birnin Magaji, said it was not in the character of former governor Yari, while in office as the executive governor for eight years, to use any instrument of party or government to cause mayhem to any of the opposition political parties.

In the same vein, Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa’s camp in the party has condemned the attack, describing it as undemocratic, barbaric and primitive.

Marafa’s APC-led faction under the chairmanship of Sirajo Garba Maikatako, said it received with shock the news of violence visited on the opposition PDP during the party’s congress.

Spokesperson of Marafa’s faction, Bello Bakyasuwa, in a statement, described the action as undemocratic. 

The spokesman of the state police command, SP Muhammad Shehu, said the matter is under investigation.