PDP Tackles Keyamo, Insists on Matawalle’s Sack

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said that it stood
by its position that the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Mahdi
Aliyu Gusau, should be accorded the statutory office of the state
governor given the decision of Governor Bello Matawalle to vacate
his office by decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The party insisted that it would not be deterred by series of
threats and attacks coming from the APC, including what it
described as the unintelligent, hogwash and unsolicited legal
opinion expressed by the Minister of State for Labour and
Productivity, Mr. Festus Keyamo, which lacked sound legal reasoning
and queried his credentials as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN).

The PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Kola Ologbondiyan said that Keyamo faulted the PDP’s reliance on
the Supreme Court’s direct interpretation of Section 221 of the
1999 Constitution (as amended) in its judgment on Faleke v. INEC,
and ended up exposing a poor knowledge of the application of the
law, by stating that the judgment cannot apply in a case of
defection of a governor from the party on which platform he was
elected to another, particularly, a party that did not even
participate in the election.

“We refer Keyamo to the definite pronouncement of the Supreme
Court in that case, to the effect that it is the political party
that stands for election, that votes scored in election belong to
the political party and that the candidate nominated to contest at
an election by his party acts only as the ‘agent’ of his party.

“The incontrovertible applicative import of that judgment is
that the votes upon which Bello Matallawe assumed office as the
governor of Zamfara State belong to the PDP and they are not
transferable to the APC, which did not sponsor candidates for that
election as required by Section 221 of the Constitution.

“On Keyamo’s claim that, once elected, the governor drops that
party ticket and becomes free even to decamp to any other political
party, we ask, if that be the case under the law, how come Mukhtar
Shehu Idris of the APC, who was already declared as elected
governor of Zamfara State, had to lose the position immediately the
Supreme Court decided that the votes cast for APC in that election
cannot count?” PDP queried.

The main opposition party said, that Nigeria runs a party system
and the judgment of the Supreme Court had made it clear that a
state governor only stands on the pedestal of votes belonging to
the political party which sponsored him at the election and that,
once the pedestal is removed, as in the case of Idris in Zamfara,
or once the governor jumps off the pedestal, as in the case of
Matawalle, he automatically loses statutory understructure to
remain a governor

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said that it stood
by its position that the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Mahdi
Aliyu Gusau, should be accorded the statutory office of the state
governor given the decision of Governor Bello Matawalle to vacate
his office by decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The party insisted that it would not be deterred by series of
threats and attacks coming from the APC, including what it
described as the unintelligent, hogwash and unsolicited legal
opinion expressed by the Minister of State for Labour and
Productivity, Mr. Festus Keyamo, which lacked sound legal reasoning
and queried his credentials as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN).

The PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Kola Ologbondiyan said that Keyamo faulted the PDP’s reliance on
the Supreme Court’s direct interpretation of Section 221 of the
1999 Constitution (as amended) in its judgment on Faleke v. INEC,
and ended up exposing a poor knowledge of the application of the
law, by stating that the judgment cannot apply in a case of
defection of a governor from the party on which platform he was
elected to another, particularly, a party that did not even
participate in the election.

“We refer Keyamo to the definite pronouncement of the Supreme
Court in that case, to the effect that it is the political party
that stands for election, that votes scored in election belong to
the political party and that the candidate nominated to contest at
an election by his party acts only as the ‘agent’ of his party.

“The incontrovertible applicative import of that judgment is
that the votes upon which Bello Matallawe assumed office as the
governor of Zamfara State belong to the PDP and they are not
transferable to the APC, which did not sponsor candidates for that
election as required by Section 221 of the Constitution.

“On Keyamo’s claim that, once elected, the governor drops that
party ticket and becomes free even to decamp to any other political
party, we ask, if that be the case under the law, how come Mukhtar
Shehu Idris of the APC, who was already declared as elected
governor of Zamfara State, had to lose the position immediately the
Supreme Court decided that the votes cast for APC in that election
cannot count?” PDP queried.

The main opposition party said, that Nigeria runs a party system
and the judgment of the Supreme Court had made it clear that a
state governor only stands on the pedestal of votes belonging to
the political party which sponsored him at the election and that,
once the pedestal is removed, as in the case of Idris in Zamfara,
or once the governor jumps off the pedestal, as in the case of
Matawalle, he automatically loses statutory understructure to
remain a governor