Rough road to Zamfara gov’t house

Few weeks ago, nobody thought the ruling APC would make it to the ballot for the governorship as well as national and state assembly elections.

Many political observers thought that the crisis that engulfed APC in Zamfara could have serious negative consequences on the ruling party.

The crisis had paved way for smaller parties in the state to pick up. They tried hard to exploit the stalemate in the APC to boost their electoral values.

Many voters had already made up their minds about who they would vote for the various offices when suddenly, respite came the way of APC few days to the presidential and National Assembly elections.

But despite the challenges it went through, the party won all the three senatorial and seven House of Representative seats in the state. This was in addition to the largest votes it garnered during the presidential election.

However, APC has a herculean task ahead as it would face many opposition personalities during the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.

One of the factors that would help the party weather the storm, however, is that despite the manifest slim chances to field candidates during the Feb. 23 elections, all its candidate won the elections.

This, however, came amidst complaints of alleged rigging.

For instance, the gubernatorial candidate of National Rescue Movement (NRM), Senator Saidu Dansadau, has called for the removal of the INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Asma’u Sani Maikudi, saying she had been compromised by Governor Abdulaziz Yari who has won a senatorial seat and is now working to install his erstwhile Commissioner of Finance, Mukhtar Shehu Idris.

“The REC had surrendered all election materials for the governorship election to Governor Yari,” Dansadau said.

Despite the allegations, Yari, probably because he has the instrument of state at his disposal, is going on with his campaign rallies from one local government area to another.

This is despite fear within the APC that some of the members of the G-8, including Senator Kabiru Marafa, Dauda Lawan and Deputy Governor Ibrahim Wakkala, might engage in anti-party activities because the appeal court judgement was not in their favour.

The APC and opposition parties in the state such as PDP, NRM and APGA are working to win the elections.

For instance, both APC and PDP had wooed other smaller parties into their folds.

A day to the presidential elections, the governorship candidates and exco members of ANN, NCP, ANRP and JNPP renounced their candidature and announced their full support to the cause of the APC in the state.

In the same vein, about eight governorship candidates of other parties endorsed the candidature of the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Dr. Bello Muhammad Mutawalle.

Leaders of other parties also featured during campaigns by Dansadau of NRM.