By Ifeanyichukwu Marcus
(SINL NIGERIA) The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC has warned the State House of Assembly over the declaration of its member’s seat vacant, saying that, the sack of Hon. Aliyu Ango Kagara, minority leader and member representing Talata Mafara South Constituency, Hon Aliyu Ango Kagara is unconstitutional.
The party said that it considered the harsh decision of the State House of Assembly being led by Hon. Bilyaminu Ismail Moriki as an embarrassment emanating from ignorance, abuse of office, and a move to weed out the APC from the State Assembly.
This was contained in a statement issued by the APC publicity secretary in the State, Mallam Yusuf Idris Gusau and made available to newsmen in Gusau, the State capital.
According to the statement, the House at Tuesday’s sitting, 28th January, 2025, ignorantly declared the seat of the party’s member vacant, just for political reasons to silence the opposition in the House, saying this is condemnable in its totality.
“The same Moriki’s House leadership suspended nine other members from the House on 8th January last year, illegally without recourse to the constitutional provision, House standing rules and all the salaries and allowances of the affected Hon. members were withheld just for voicing out their constituents security challenges before the house which became a crime against the house leadership.
“The members who expect Kagara’s seat to be declared vacant are either ignorant or adamant to the fact that Hon. Aliyu Ango Kagara was inaugurated as a member representing Talata Mafara South on 8th June, 2023 as a member of the 7th Assembly of Zamfara State making the legislative year’s span from June to June for four years”
“Now, 2023 has ended, we are now in the second legislative year from June 2024 to June 2025, now six moths old, with the House currently on recess since September last year, due to ongoing House renovation which even trapped the 2025 Appropriation bill presentation compelling it into a matter of public importance and reopened the house to allow the governor present the budget proposal before it”
“Because of their selfish interests, they deliberately forgot that in the second legislative year, the House only sat for 2 months because in the first four months, they were on renovation recess while the remaining six months are yet to come and for which they don’t have the knowledge of seeing but they blindly went ahead and declared vacant a ranking house member’s seat who was elected into the House for the fourth time”
“Confirming their ignorance, that before declaring or removing any member, it requires constitutional interpretation and certain processes that must be followed and not an arbitrary announcement by a bunch of illiterates”
“The State Assembly also needs to explain to the electorate how many times they sat to take effective decisions in the House of Assembly which has been moving from one place to another and only come together on a short notice to meet in secretive manners and take the bidding of their master who has since turned them into rubber stamps that are only convenient to some PDP members”
“Similarly, any member found in violation of the House rules must be given fair hearing preceding any action and not the blind folded action of those members who think their uniformed act will hold water”
“The APC, as a party, while calling on the National Assembly to call the Zamfara State House of Assembly to order, wishes to caution the state legislature over this matter that may lead to taking them to court with claims of damages, order for apologies etc clamped on them”
