The Zamfara State wing of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) says they have expelled their immediate past state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Senator Lawali Shuaibu, who is locked in a supremacy battle with the National Chair, Adams Oshiomhole.
The development came as the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial Petition Tribunal in Uyo, the state capital, has fixed June 10 to commence trial on petitions filed by Senator Godswill Akpabio seeking to invalidate Christopher Ekpenyong as legitimate winner of the February 23 senatorial elections.
The tribunal concluded its pre-hearing session last Friday.
The session afforded the tribunal opportunity to meet the parties with a view of setting up modalities to be adopted in the actual hearing of substantive issues in dispute.
Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Robert Egwono Emukpoeruo SAN, submitted to the tribunal Schedules of Electoral Forms and INEC Adhoc Staff.
The tribunal was adjourned till May 31 for submission of Schedules of Electoral Forms and INEC Adhoc Staff Reports for Essien Udim, Ini, Abak and Obot Akara local government areas.
In the mean time, APC is blaming the former governor for the deep trouble it found itself during the past elections, alleging that ‘’Yari and his boys scuttled the efforts of our national headquarters to conduct primaries on the 3rd and 7th of October 2018.
‘’His nefarious activities led to the death of six persons and over 200 others were injured,” the party said. The party also ordered the embattled former governor to surrender all properties of the party in his possession.’’
Consequently, the party is urging them to immediately surrender all the belongings of the APC in their possession including funds. The Zamfara APC is also alleging that the former governor frustrated their efforts to conduct primaries last year, ‘’thus laying the foundation for the electoral misfortune that befell it in the state.“
After reviewing their outing in the last general election and the outcome of the Supreme Court Judgement, APC accordingly announced, ‘’we hereby dismiss the former governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Yari and the Deputy National Chairman Senator Lawali Shuaibu from the APC.’’
The decision to expel the former governor/Chair of the Governors’ Forum and the Deputy National Chairman was however, taken at the end of an emergency meeting held in Gusau, the Zamfara state capital on Monday.
