I’m under pressure to leave APC, says Yari

Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara state, says he is under pressure to leave the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Yari, who is not on the same page with Adams Oshiomhole, chairman of the ruling party, said this while speaking with state house correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock.

He had accused the national working committee of the APC of attempting to impose candidates on Zamfara for the 2019 elections.

Yari said his supporters were aggrieved over failure of the party leadership to acknowledge the primaries conducted in the state last week.

“I cannot deny pressure from the people that we should leave APC but what I told them is that what we are looking for is justice,” he said.

However, Yari has vowed to pursue justice in the ruling party, describing himself as a politician who does not jumping ship easily.

The governor said mischief makers were giving the impression that he was considering joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“If you check my history since 1998, APP, and 2002 when Buhari joined ANPP, and 2015 APC, no time that I shifted from one party to another. That is not in my culture. So, the issue of leaving the party is not true,” he said.

“But some other people are sending rumour through the social media. I have seen my picture with the PDP and other parties.”

Yari also insisted that primaries held in Zamfara, wondering why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) barred the APC from fielding candidates for the 2019 polls.

The governor also warned the national leadership of the party not to present any list that did not emanate from the state.

“We conducted election and we want to see what the result is going to look. But I think for any body to come under the national secretariat and say he is going to nominate a candidate, I think, it is a very huge joke.” he said

“There were hitches somewhere but we decided to suspend the area there were problems until the following day. So, the following day, we continued and we concluded the election by the people nominated by that committee to conduct election but the committee ran away and refused to collate the results.

“So, what we did was that we filed the results and kept it under the watch of those people and waited to see what was going to happen. The second committee waited 32 hours to the closing, we thought the committee will hasten and come up with modalities for the election.

“But committee wasted about 18 hours discussing about how the modalities were going to be. So, when we realised that, we were actually advised by the supervisory agency that is INEC and other agencies there that the best thing to do as the people had voted and since it was 7am was to start counting.

“When they finished, they released the materials and we adopted the numbers. Already, we had produced our own set of forms for the national Assembly which we have done and then, when we concluded, I didn’t see members of the committee until one and half hours to the time.

“Then, when they came I asked them what they came for, they said they came for reconciliation and I said which reconciliation? People can not reconcile over a month and you are trying to reconcile in an hour. Then, I realised that there was a game that was being played so that we can run out of time.”