Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), has denied calling for postponement of all elections in Zamfara state.
The Minister of Justice said in a statement by Salihu Isah, his Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, that the media reports were misleading and False.
He stated that he had only asked the INEC to extend the time within which the All Progressives Congress might field candidates in the forthcoming elections in the state.
Part of the statement reads, “The attention of the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has been drawn to a recent publication by certain social media and conventional news outlets stating that this Office had purportedly requested the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the elections in Zamfara State.
“The Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation wishes to emphatically reiterate that this report is false and misleading.
“In our letter dated February 13, 2019 addressed to the INEC Chairman, the Honourable Attorney of the Federation in reacting to a petition from M.A Mahmud informing this Office of the subsisting Court of Appeal decision in CA/S/22/2019 which effectively upheld the APC primaries in Zamfara state, wrote to INEC informing them of this development and requested the Commission to comply by extending the time within which the political party candidate in the Gubernatorial elections.”
Okay Nigeria recalls that the AGF in a letter dated January 13, 2019 to the Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, called on the commission to comply with a certain judgment of the Court of Appeal affirming the primaries of the party in the state.
In the same letter, Malami asked the commission to give more time for APC to field candidates for the governorship, National Assembly and state House of Assembly elections in the state, quoting section 38 and 39 of the Electoral Act empowered the commission to postpone the election.