A former governor of Zamfara state, Ahmad Sani Yarima has said he advised the impeached deputy governor, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau to resign long before he was impeached.
Yarima, in an interview with a Gusau based online television station, Thunder Blowers said he reached out to Mahdi to save him from embarrassement.
Mahdi had refused to decamp to APC with his principal, Bello Muhammad Matawalle, which led to his impeachment by the State House of Assembly last week. A senator, Hassan Muhammad Nasiha, has been sworn in as the new deputy governor.
Yarima said when he learnt of the impeachment move, he asked a former governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, who is close to Mahadi’s father, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, and advised him to initimate Ali Gusau of the plan.
The former governor said Bafarawa called Ali Gusau in his presence to deliver his message but the retired general and his son rejected the advice and headed to the court instead.
While insisting that if Mahadi had resign, it would have been better for him, Yarima said the younger Gusau also decided not to accept the advise that he should not attack Matawalle and his administration.
He said, “When the impeachment issue started last year, some Northern elders like Sani Zangon Daura and Dr. Bello Haliru intimated me to talk to the Governor not to allow that to happen and when I reached out to him, Matawalle said if Mahdi and PDP would not be attacking his government, he has no issue with his stay in the PDP, and he would not support the impeachment move.
“After a peaceful outreach to Mahdi, few days later, I saw on TV that the PDP has opened a new office and Mahadi was making some utterances that he is now the leader of the PDP in Zamfara and between him and Governor is a fight-to-finish, and you know you can’t have two leaders in one state.
“When I listened to such utterances I knew there may likely be going to be a problem and I also I knew even if I talk again, nothing would stop the impeachment move,” Yarima said.
