Gov Yari not from Zamfara — Sen Marafa

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara), has told the Senate that Governor Abdulaziz Yari is not from Zamfara State.

Yari and Marafa had clashed over Ahmad Bello Mahmud, a nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari for Resident Electoral Commission of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While Yari insisted that the nominee who was to represent Zamfara in INEC should not be confirmed by the Senate, Marafa said he should be allowed to represent the state.

The Senate Committee on INEC, chaired by Senator Suleiman Nazif (APC, Bauchi), last month recommended the rejection of the nominee, and it was approved by the Senate.

Marafa, yesterday, raised a point of order alleging that the governor’s parents, like that of the nominee, were not from Zamfara State.

“It is very clear that the only opposition to this nominee is coming from the Governor of Zamfara State who wrote to the president that the nominee is not from Zamfara State but from Sokoto State. The governor’s parents are not from Zamfara State,” he said.

In his remarks, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, assured Marafa that justice would be done on the matter.

Yari had in a letter he personally signed requested President Buhari to drop the nominee and replace him with Alhaji Sani Garba Gusau, saying Mahmud was from Sokoto and not Zamfara State.