APC crisis: Yari faction tackles Yerima over claims on fresh registration
A statement made by a former Zamfara State Governor, Senator Ahmed Yerima has sparked controversy in the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress.
Yarima, had in an interview with newsmen in Gusau on Sunday that those who did not register as party members afresh were ineligible to take part in party activities.
He said, “Any member of the APC who failed to register afresh as a result of Governor Matawalle’s defection to APC will neither vote, no be voted for in any future election.”
In response, the state APC caretaker committee chairman, Alhaji Lawal Liman, on Monday, dismissed the former governor’s claim as “baseless and unfounded.”
Liman, who addressed a press conference at the party’s Secretariat in Gusau, said, “Yarima’s statement is a violation of APC constitution.
“I want to draw the attention of the public, especially our party members of some misguided utterances of former Senator Yarima as widely reported by the media.
“Yarima claimed that, henceforth, anybody who has not renewed his register with the new decampees will not be considered as APC member and hence, he can neither vote nor be voted for in any of the party congresses and subsequent elections”.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let me clearly tell him (Yarima) that, APC in Zamfara has already registered about 770,000 members and that register is still mentioned by each of the 147 wards in accordance with provision of our party constitution article 9.4.
“This is also crystal clear that, going by article 9.5, of the APC constitution, no membership of the party can be terminated except by death, resignation, expulsion or procurement of membership card of another political party, accepting political appointment of opposition party or opposition government.
“Therefore, the misleading statement by Yarima that the membership of 770,000 APC members is annulled is not only unfounded but an attempt to disorganize, disunite and ridicule the party while deceiving the general public”.
Liman maintained that, other governors had defected to APC before Governor Bello Matawalle but the party register in their states were not cancelled. PUNCH
