Kabir Marafa, a former senator representing Zamfara Central, says President Bola Tinubu saved democracy in the country by not interfering with verdicts on the supreme court on the various governorship disputes.
On Friday, the apex court affirmed the elections of Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau); Abba Kabir Yusuf (Kano); Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos); Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); Dauda Lawal (Zamfara); Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi) Alex Otti (Abia) and Bassey Otu (Cross River).
The governors were declared the winners of the March 2023 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a statement on Monday, Marafa said Tinubu and the justices of the Supreme Court have lived up to the expectations of Nigerians.
“It is a welcome development. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has by this singular action of non-interference in the Supreme Court judgment saved the country’s democracy and forestalled the repeat of the 1983 scenario,” the statement reads.
“You will recall that it was after the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) grabbed states that were hitherto of the opposition that the Second Republic collapsed.”
The former lawmaker recalled how the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost Zamfara state in the 2019 elections in which he was a governorship aspirant.
“I protested the conduct of the kangaroo primaries and the imposition of candidates by the then Governor Abdulaziz Yari, the judiciary stood up to the occasion and delivered a landmark judgment that gave the whole state to the PDP opposition party,” Marafa said.
“The judiciary must be allowed to be just and fair no matter whose ox is gored, this is necessary if the political actors want democracy to endure in the country.”
While congratulating the governor of Zamfara over the supreme court verdict. Marafa urged him to justify the confidence reposed in him by the people of the state.
