Constituents move to deny Niger rep 6th-term return

Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), under the aegis of the Wushishi, Mariga, Kontagora and Mashegu Alliance for Good Governance, have called on Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago to zone the House of Representatives seat for the four local government areas to Mashegu LGA ahead of the 2027 general elections.

At an expanded meeting held over the weekend, the stakeholders said the incumbent lawmaker, Idris Garba, popularly known as Mai Solar, has been in the National Assembly since 2007 and should allow Mashegu LGA, which has not produced a representative since 1999, to take its turn.

The coordinator of the alliance, Gideon Jonathan Maikarfi, said Garba, who hails from Kontagora LGA, had overstayed beyond the existing zoning arrangement, thereby marginalising other LGAs, particularly Mashegu. He said petitions had been sent to the state APC leadership and the governor, urging them to zone the seat to Mashegu in the interest of equity and party cohesion.

Reading the resolutions of the meeting, Habila Ibrahim Kudu reiterated the demand that the House of Representatives seat for Kontagora, Mariga, Mashegu and Wushishi Federal Constituency be zoned to Mashegu.

“Since the return to democracy in 1999, Mashegu LGA remains the only local government in Zone C that has never been given the opportunity to represent the constituency at the National Assembly,” he said, adding that the area had consistently shown loyalty and strong electoral support for the APC.

Other stakeholders, including Hajiya Aisha Jimada from Wushishi and Hajiya Halima S. Abdulkadir Kontagora, described it as unfair for the incumbent to seek a sixth term when Mashegu had never produced a representative.

Reacting, the state APC Publicity Secretary, Musa Danjuma Sarkinkaji, said the party leadership was yet to be formally notified of the demand, adding that zoning remained the prerogative of the party and that due process would be followed.

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