By John Ikani
The gulf appears to be widening between Zamfara Governor, Bello Matawalle, and his Deputy, Mahdi Aliyu, after the Governor threatened to give the Deputy Governor “the treatment he deserves” if he dared him.
They both came into government as candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but Mr Matawalle and virtually all the other elected officials in the state, last month, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Aliyu, son of former National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Muhammed Gusau, has refused to follow Matawalle to the APC, and even addressed a rally of the PDP, the platform that brought the two of them to power, to reaffirm his loyalty to the party.
The Deputy Governor said in a recent BBC Hausa Service interview, that his decision to remain in the PDP was in honour of the mandate given to the party by the Supreme Court.
“Remember how the Supreme Court brought us to power. That’s why I am thankful to God and chose to remain in the PDP,” he said.
The apex court, according to him, awarded the electoral victory in 2019 to the PDP and not just its candidates.
This has not gone down well with the Governor, who told the Hausa Service of Deutsch Welle on Saturday that he was getting fed up with Aliyu’s disrespectful attitude.
On its part, the state House of Assembly has initiated plans to sanction Mr Aliyu for holding the rally, while killings by bandits are still going on in Zamfara and “in disrespect of advice by the security authorities in the state”.
The move sparked speculations that the legislators who have already switched camps from the PDP to the APC plan to impeach the deputy governor.
Speaker Nasiru Magarya, had faulted Aliyu for holding the rally.
“It is wrong for the deputy governor to hold a political rally in this critical time,” he said.
Mr Matawalle also reprimanded the deputy governor when he commented on the summon in an interview with DW Hausa Service on Saturday.
“I just read about the impeachment plan and called someone for clarification who told me that they would not accept it from the deputy governor to be organising rallies when people are being killed.
“As governor of the state, I promised to work together with the deputy governor irrespective of our political affiliations. But I won’t tolerate a disrespectful attitude from him,” he said.
