Posted by By Terwase Tyoban, Birnin Kebbi on
The nullification of the elections of Maj. Gen. Tanko Ayuba as the senator for Kebbi South Senetorial District may have to come as a shock, but to many it is an expected and welcome development especially to the people of Zuru Emirate where he hails from.
The nullification of the elections of Maj. Gen. Tanko Ayuba as the senator for Kebbi South Senetorial District may have to come as a shock, but to many it is an expected and welcome development especially to the people of Zuru Emirate where he hails from.
To many people from Zuru Emirate, the nullification of the election is considered a fitting price for a betrayal, this is so for Tanko Ayuba is one of those looked upon as a role model and leader by the people of the emirate.
Quite naturally, he was expected by his followers to stick together with General Magoro and the late General Musa whose ticket was forcefully taken away and given to Ayuba by the Adamu Aliero Group that decamped to the PDP from ANPP.
When news of the nullification was broken in Zuru however, there were mixed reaction as majority said it served him right for stabbing late Gen. Bamaiyi in the back, while some who still reserved some sympathy for the one time military governor of Kaduna State feel he was set up by the powers that be in Gwandu Emirate.
According to them, while agreeing with the verdict as passed by the tribunal, they still feel the act of broad day light corruption and election mal practice that characterized the senatorial election in Kebbi central in Gwandu Emirate which produced former governor Muhammad Adamu Aliero and that of Kebbi North Senatorial District by far outweigh what happened in Kebbi South from which Tanko Ayuba emerged.
For the election of former Governor Aliero to be upheld by the tribunal, despite glaring evidence presented before the tribunal was proof that the tribunal outcome was heavily manipulated and Gen. Tanko Ayuba was sacrificed to make it look like, there was a balance in the rulings that have so far been given by the Tribunal members.
When our Correspondent got in touch with Gen. Magoro on the phone, he said he was hearing of the judgement for the first time and promised to make his own comments after studying the ruling, however, according Mr. Iliya Komo one time Special Adviser on education to Muhammad Adamu Aliero, the verdict passed on Ayuba may be a just reward for what he considers treachery against the late Bamaiyi, but like others he also feels Ayuba was sacrificed in order to deceive the people of the state who are aware of the high level maneuvers to get the tribunal members to favour the PDP that the judgments have been fair.
A journalist with the German Radio, Radio Deutche welle and an indigene of Zuru Emirate, Mallam El-Yaku USman Dabai shares the same views with his kinsmen.
Although he says the nullification of Ayubas's election is 'good riddance to bad rubbish" and feels Ayuba deserved what he got for betraying BAmaiyi, and says it should serve as a lesson to greedy politicians who are ready to sacrifice anything and any one to achieve their selfish aims, he still feels something does not feel right about the judgments so far handed out by the tribunal.
In order to better understand the reasons for the mixed feeling even though the jubilations have taken precedence in some quarters concerning the tribunal verdict, it would be proper to throw a little light on what happened between Ayuba and the late Bamaiyi that earned the formal the toga of a betrayer.
Gen Magoro, Gen Bamaiyi and Gen. Ayuba have been inseparable or so it seemed since the trio decided to venture into politics after their retirements from the army, and quite naturally Ayuba looked up to the other two as big brothers hence they usually arrived at a consensus before decisions are taken among them.
Usually, these decisions are taken with one or two agreeing voluntarily fore go an ambition if the other shows interest, this they did in the order of seniority with Magoro as the big brother.
When Gen. bamaiyi got the PDP nomination to contest for senate, it was no secret that Ayuba was also interested in the same seat, but as usual everyone thought he gave way for Bamaiyi as usual, so it was a surprise when Ayuba showed up at the government House press centre denouncing his membership of the PDP and declaring for the ANPP which was the ruling party before Aliero and his group decamped to the PDP.
Not quite three weeks after he declared for the ANPP, the Aliero camp switched parties and embarked on the 'confiscation" of nominations from the bona fide PDP members and giving them to the decampees from that ANPP that moved into PDP and subsequently became known as PDP plus.
It was under this arrangement that the Aliero group decided to replace Gen. Bamaiyi who was nominated by the PDP originally with Ayuba. Bamaiyi of course resisted the forceful move to deny him his ticket and headed to the Federal High Court Kaduna where he received judgment in his favour.
Despite receiving judgment in his favour, the new PDP-plus still went ahead and fielded Ayuba as its candidate, thereby disregarding the court ruling.
Eventually, Bamaiyi died on the 17th of April 2007 before the elections. For the people of Zuru Emirate and other across the state, for agreeing to be part of this conspiracy that robed Bamaiyi his mandate, Ayuba was considered a traitor and betrayer hence the jubilation over the annulment of his election.
While there are mixed feelings in Zuru over the tribunal ruling, the lawyer to the ANPP candidate that saw to it that Ayuba lost out. Barrister Peters Samaila is in cloud seven.
Peters who spoke to our correspondent in Birnin Kebbi after the ruling said, despite winning his case, he however received the judgment with mixed feelings, this according to him was because, despite expecting the tribunal to nullify the election of the respondent, he had expected his candidate Alhaji Muhammad Bello USman to be declared the winner and not the order for by fresh election in the area as directed by the tribunal.
In his ruling that sealed the fate of Ayuba, Justice Aondover Kaka'an held that the PDP senatorial candidate who was nominated, cleared and screened was late Maj. Gen. Musa Bamaiyi (Rtd) who died on the 17th April 2007.
Maj.Gen.Tanko Ayuba's nomination the tribunal held was irrelevant by virtue of the Federal High Courts order in Bamaiyi' case against PDP and 4 others.
After the demise of Bamaiyi Kaka'an submitted, the PDP had the opportunity of substituting him but did not, thus the PDP had no candidate at the 2007 senatorial election held on the 21st of April.
He submitted further that by virtue of section 65(2) of the constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria, a person is qualified to contest election into the senate if he is a member of a party and is sponsored by the same party, and since it was Bamaiyi that was sponsored, presenting any other candidate by the PDP for the same post would amount to double nomination.
While the jubilations and mixed feelings continue, the last has been heard of the historic ruling as more reactions are bound to come soon. Mean while the some members of the PDP who spoke on the issue said they expected the judgment the way it came.