The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara has raised concerns about the alleged witch-hunt of its members who were part of the state’s parallel assembly.
In a statement released on Sunday by the party’s publicity secretary, Malam Yusuf Idris, the APC accused the Zamfara State government of using the judiciary to target the nine elected members of the state House of Assembly.
The members, according to the statement, were ordered to be arrested by Chief Magistrate Halima Jaafar Mikaila without any formal summons or charges.
The statement reads: “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 public interest.”
It further explained that despite the case being under consideration by the Court of Appeal in Sokoto, and despite petitions submitted to the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the DSS, the National Security Adviser, and other stakeholders, the Magistrate Court moved ahead with the arrest order.
“We therefore call on the state government under Governor Dauda Lawal to stop this harassment, sit with the aggrieved members, and amicably resolve the crisis in order to move the state forward,” the APC demanded.
The statement concluded, “APC will continue to be on the right side of the law and will not allow judicial officers to be politicized and used against public interest.”
“We will resist any attempt to witch-hunt the members just for voicing out the security situation of their constituencies, which the Zamfara State government failed to address,” the party reiterated.
The APC further called on the aggrieved members to petition the Judicial Service Commission regarding the politically-motivated court order, describing it as a lesson to other judicial officers.
