Zamfara Verdict May Tighten Senate Leadership Contest

Sade AdewaleMay 26, 2019

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The Supreme Court judgement on Zamfara State is no doubt a setback to the ruling party because the APC lost three senators and seven in the House of Representatives. This leaves the party with a new set of numbers of representation in the 9th Assembly.

The APC had 60 senators before the judgement, now the APC has 57. PDP now has 49 because it had 46 before Friday’s judgement while the Young Progressive Party has one. As it is now, there are two cases that are yet to be determined in Imo State.

The case of that of the outgoing Governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha and that of Senator Ben Uwajumogu with the anticipation that the APC will win. If APC has these two, the new calculation will be 59 for the APC which makes the party to be in the majority.

The 10 new additions to PDP federal legislators-elect include three senators and seven members of the House of Representatives, which brings the total number of PDP Senators to 49, as against 57 by the APC. The Young Peoples Party (YPP) has one senator, and two senatorial results are yet to be declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the House, PDP now has 131 members-elect, and APC has 202, while the remaining 27 seats are shared by YPP, African Democratic Party (ADP), and African Democratic Movement (ADM), among other smaller parties.

The sacked Zamfara APC federal legislators-elect, who had earlier been issued Certificates of Return for their senatorial seats by INEC, include Tijjani Yahaya (Zamfara North), Aliyu Bilbis (Zamfara Central), and out-going governor of the state and immediate past Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara West).

For the House of Representatives, those affected include Muhammad Ibrahim (Birnin-Mogaji Kaura-Namoda/Birnin Magaji federal constituency), Husaini Moriki (Shinkafi/Zurmi federal constituency), Rikiji Garba (Gusau/Tsafe federal constituency), Zubairu Bungudu (Bungudu/Maru federal constituency), Sharu Anka (Anka/Talata Mafara federal constituency), Muhammad Rini (Bakura/Maradun federal constituency), and Bukkuyum Jibo (Gummi/Bukkuyum federal constituency).