The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC has called for the immediate rescinding of the purported declaration as vacant, the seat of the Minority Leader and member representing Talata Mafara South Constituency, Hon Aliyu Ango Kagara as vacant by the state House of Assembly.
under the leadership of Hon. Bilyaminu Ismail Moriki.
A statement by the APC Publicity Secretary in Zamfara State, Malam Yusuf Idris Gusau says the action deemed as
an embarrassment emanating from ignorance, abuse of office, and a move to weed out the APC from the state assembly.
According to the statement, the House at Tuesday's sitting, 28th January ignorantly declared the seat of the APC member vacant just for political reasons to silence the opposition in the house and condemned it in totality.
It says the same Bilyaminu's House leadership suspended nine other members from the House on 8th January last year, 2024 illegally without recourse to the constitutional provision or House standing rules and all the salaries and allowances of the affected Honourable members were withheld just for voicing out their constituents security challenges before the house which became a crime against the house leadership.
"It is sad to note that, the law makers, majority of who are from the PDP have been fighting and terrorizing even their own members who refuse to dance to their tunes especially as rubber stamps face suspension and other threats but keep silent having come from the same party will expect the APC to be quiet when harassed.
The members who expect Kagara's seat to be declared vacant are either ignorant of 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, and 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.
According to him, before declaring or removing any member, it requires constitutional interpretation and certain processes that must be followed and not an arbitrary announcement by members of the house.
"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"
The statement maintains that, any member found in violation of the House rules must be given fair hearing preceding on any action and not the blind folded action of those members who think their uniformed act will hold water.
It says the APC while calling on the National Assembly to call the Zamfara State House of Assembly to order, cautioned the state legislature over the matter that may lead to taking them to court with claims of damages, order for apologies etc clamped on them.
