Senator Tijjani Yahaya Kaura has insisted that his mandate cannot be taken away from him following his emergence as the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for Zamfara North Senatorial District.
Kaura made the statement during a press conference at his residence in Kaura Namoda, where he alleged that the chairman of the party’s primary election committee was taken to an undisclosed location by individuals he described as anti-democratic elements.
According to the senator, the chairman was abducted before announcing a result declaring Senator Sahabi Ya’u the winner.
He claimed that most members of the committee rejected the announcement and jointly declared him the winner of the exercise.
The dispute followed the fresh APC primary ordered by the Court of Appeal in Sokoto after it upheld a Federal High Court judgment nullifying the earlier exercise over alleged irregularities.
However, the APC returning officer, Alhaji Sani Abdullahi, subsequently declared Kaura the winner of the rerun with 16,758 votes. Sahabi Ya’u polled 1,465 votes, while Abdullahi Sani Shinkafi scored 1,447 votes.
Kaura described the alleged abduction as an attempt to undermine the electoral process and dismissed the opposing camp’s claim that Sahabi Ya’u had won.
He urged political stakeholders to respect what he described as the people’s mandate and the result announced by the committee members.