Zamfara's governor Yari said to be considering dumping APC after the dissolution of state exco

ZAMFARA State governor Abdulaziz Yari is considering dumping the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the opposition Peoples Democratic party (PSDP) following the decision to dissolve his state's party apparatus.

Earlier this week, the APC high command decided to dissolve the Zamfara State executive committee at all levels and replace it with a caretaker committee that will conduct party primaries. Earlier primaries conducted by Governor Yari were nullified following protests by party members in the state that no elections took place and the governor just hand-picked his favourites to stand as candidates.

As a result of the drastic action by the APC leadership, Governor Yari summoned an emergency meeting with top party stakeholders and some commissioners to take a decision on their political future. Dumping the  APC was on the agenda of the meeting, which attendees were asked not to attend with their mobile phones.

One party member said: “Governor Yari is really upset, I have never seen him this angry. He summoned the emergency meeting with some key stakeholders tonight to decide on his political future.

"As I speak to you, the meeting is ongoing. I heard some party leaders are spitting swear words against the national leadership of the party, urging the governor to dump the party."

Yekini Nabena, the APC acting national publicity secretary, had announced that the party's national working committee (NWC)-inaugurated committee for Zamfara would conduct the governorship and legislative primaries in the state. Asking Governor Yari and the dissolved state executives should not interfere in the primary elections, Mr Nabena added that the Zamfara State governorship and legislative primaries would hold from Saturday October 5, to Sunday, October 6.

Trouble started shortly after the endorsement of Mukhtar Idris to become the APC governorship candidate by Governor Yari. Certain party members who had bought forms but not been allowed to take part in the primaries, petitioned the APC leadership in Abuja, which forced the NWC to annul the primaries and dissolve the state party structure.

Following this action, Governor Yari called out his supporters to stage a peaceful protest today. Over recent weeks, the governor has been involved in running battles with eight governorship aspirants in the state over the conduct of direct primaries.

Governor Yari said: “I am calling on all our members to come out and storm the state police headquarters by 10 am for peaceful protest. We will continue with this decision until the national leadership of our party do what is right on this matter.

“Our issue is with the national secretariat of APC where Adams Oshiomhole continues be a dictator to party members, he acts as a mini god. You know, there is an ongoing issue regarding the APC governorship primaries in the state, where the national headquarters sent a committee to conduct the election and it was very unfortunate that the committee cancelled the election on Wednesday."

According to Abu Fari, the chairman of the election NWC panel, the earlier primaries were cancelled due to harassment and intimidation of voters and the snatching of election materials by thugs sponsored by politicians. Governor Yari, however, dismissed the claim by the committee as false and warned its members not to step into Zamfara State again.

“We heard that the national working committee had dissolved the APC executive in the state and also send the same committee to Zamfara to repeat the exercise. I want to call on the national headquarters of the party that we will not accept the decision and we are not satisfied with the committee, we don’t have confidence in that committee, Governor Yari added.

“I am warning members of that committee that they should never come to Zamfara, they should never put their legs in this state, and anything that happens to them, Adams Oshiomhole should be held responsible. We will continue with this decision until the national leadership of the party are ready to do justice,” Governor Yari added.

He also dismissed insinuations that he had dumped the APC, saying nothing will make him leave the party. Pointing out that he was a founding member of the APC, Governor Yari said no amount of pressure will make me to leave the party.