Senator asks Buhari to declare state of emergency in Zamfara

      According to Punch news, Senator Saidu Dansadau said on Sunday that he had written to President Muhammadu Burahi asking him to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara State.
Dansadau, who addressed journalists in Abuja, said he listed various offences committed by the Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, in his letter to the President.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, were copied in the letter.
He urged Buhari and the nation’s parliament to invoke the necessary provisions of the Constitution which empowers them to declare state of emergence in the state, in the interest of peace and safety of the residents.
The letter read in part, “By Sections 4 (2) and 176 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria the executive powers of a state are vested in the governor of that state.
“By Section 215 (4) of the Constitution, the governor is the chief security officer of the state. The Constitution envisages that to perform these onerous responsibilities, the governor is expected to be resident in the state and give his full attention to the governance of the state.
“I wish to bring to the attention of Mr. President that since the incumbency of the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar which began five years ago, public perception is that the Governor has spent only about 20 per cent of that whole period in Zamfara State.
“He had utilised the other 80 percent junketing from one part of the country to the other and shuttling around the globe. All matters of State that require action are kept waiting until he returns to the State.
“Consequently, intelligence and security reports are kept in abeyance. For instance, at a period, out of 60 straight days, the governor spent only two days in Zamfara State.”
He said as a result, there are increasing threats to public order in the state with hundreds killed.
“If the killings in the remaining 23 State Constituencies in the state are added, the total number of lives lost can better be imagined. All these losses would have been averted were the Governor alive to his constitutional responsibilities,” he added.
He said anything short of anything short of a state of emergency would “turn the thick forest between the southern border of Zamfara State with Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi States into a national park of criminals and killers, worse than what the nation has ever witnessed before”.
The state governor could not be immediately reached for comments. The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Umar Jibo, did not pick his call or respond to a text message sent to him.