By Citizenship Daily
The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the recent order given by the Chief Magistrate 1, Halima Jaafar Mikaila for the arrest of the nine suspended legislators who embarked upon struggles for their constitutional rights allegedly violated by the leadership of the State House of Assembly.
This was contained in a statement issued by the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Malam Yusuf Idris Gusau, saying, while the case is still before the Court of Appeal in Sokoto which directed the both parties to maintain Status quo pending the court ruling, the Chief Magistrate has ordered for the arrest of the defendants.
“We at the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC have found it disturbing and embarrassing how the state government is using the machinery of the judiciary to attack constitutionally elected members of the state House of Assembly for executing their legislative functions and pointing out where the executive is wrong in the discharge of its responsibilities for the public interests.
“Even though a case is pending in the Court of Appeal, Sokoto in addition to a petition written to the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the DSS, the National Security Adviser, the National Assembly and other stakeholders by the aggrieved law makers extracted from both the ruling PDP and opposition APC in the state, the Magistrate Court went ahead to order for the arrest of the members without any charge or summon.
“We are therefore calling on the state government under governor Dauda Lawal to stop these harassment, sit with the aggrieved members and amicably resolve the crisis in order to move forward.
“The APC no doubt will continue to be on the right side of the law and will not allow judicial officers to be politicised and used against public interests.
“The party will resist any attempt to witchunt the members just for voicing out the security situation of their various constituencies, which the Zamfara State government failed to address.
“We are calling on the members to petition the Judicial Service Commission against the politically motivated court order illegally granted by the Magistrate in order to serve as a lesson to other judicial officers”, the statement has solicited.
Meanwhile, in a swift reaction by the members of the Parallel Assembly under the leadership of Hon. Bashar Aliyu Gummi against the Court Order for their arrest, a statement signed by Hon. Aliyu Ango Kagara representing Talata Mafara South, insisted that, “No amount of intimidation from the state government, including the use of some alleged twisted courts or legal officers, can derail our focused leadership.
“We are aware of the malicious actions against us by the state government and have written petitions against the Dauda Lawal led administration to security agencies both at the state and national levels and approached stakeholders who mean well to both the state and our good people on all the situation and flagrant abuse of law by the other faction of the state House of Assembly under Hon. Bilyaminu Moriki which suspended us, some of us for over a year now without recourse to the constitution and the law.
“We are also aware and in possession of a recorded planned attack on us and our families by some thugs close to the Governor and have alerted the security on these, in case anything happens to any of us (individually or collectively).
“Our stance on the respect to the rule of law by all arms of government in the state remains unshaken, we are not afraid of all the threats, nor shall we be deterred on our mandate”, the statement said.
