Marafa wants Gov. Yari removed over killings in Zamfara
The Chairman of the Senate committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara), yesterday, canvassed for the adoption of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s, approach in addressing the killings in Zamfara State.
Obasanjo had on May 18, 2004, citing Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, imposed a state of emergency in Plateau State, suspending the then Governor Joshua Dariye.
Dariye was allegedly removed for failing to end a cycle of bloodletting occasioned by religious crises in the state; and a military administrator was appointed. Obasanjo also declared a state of emergency in Ekiti State.
However, various courts have since ruled that declaring state of emergency does not include the removal of an elected governor.
This is the second time that Marafa would be calling for the declaration of state of emergency in Zamfara State this year.
He repeated the call yesterday during plenary when he raised a point of order to draw the attention of the senate to this week’s killings in Zamfara State.
Sen. Marafa said, “I rise today again with a very heavy heart to report to this senate and indeed the people of Nigeria of another unfortunate incident of killings in Zamfara State as reported by the BBC yesterday.
“Such incident happens almost every day in Zamfara; what is more worrisome about it is the fact that the local authorities don’t want anybody to say it. They don’t report it. The local radio doesn’t report it. The local newspaper doesn’t report anything.
“When the last incident happened, I stood here to call for a state of emergency in Zamfara State which I’m sure many people were not happy with, but I think, as we move on, we need to revisit the therapy of former President Obasanjo because if these children were our own children, their own children, I’m sure the behaviour is going to be very different.
“I hope it will be the last one, but if for any reason, another thing happens of this nature, I want to call on my colleagues to look more seriously into this problem with the view to meeting it with proper sanctions so that these unwanted sanctions are stopped,” he said.
“Women are being snatched from their husbands. Just two weeks ago, a bride was snatched from her husband and from a marriage that was just two weeks old. She was raped and hospitalised.
“But as much as the Federal Government is capable of giving directives, it is impossible to do the needful unless the state government also helps…Nobody will know what is happening,” he said.
He added that unconfirmed reports put the death toll of the latest killings at 60.
In his remarks, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, appealed to the Federal Government to do more in the protection of lives and property of citizens.