A former lawmaker, who represented Zamfara Central Senatorial District in the Eight Senate, Senator Kabir Marafa, has warned the All Progressives Congress against an alleged move to install a serving Governor as President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.
Marafa, a former governorship aspirant in Zamfara State, alleged that there were moves by some persons within the Governors’ Forum to hijack the party and install one of them, who he described as “expired”, to succeed the President.
The chieftain, who spoke in Abuja, on Friday, while giving his suggestions to the APC reconciliation committee, declared that the said move would crumble like a pack of cards.
“Nobody can bring the position of national chairman to the North now. The moves by some people within the Governors’ Forum to hijack the party and install a serving governor, an expired one, to succeed President Buhari, will crash the way former Governor Abdulaziz Yari’s selfish agenda crashed totally,” he said.
He disagreed with Yari’s position that the reconciliation committee should go to sleep because Zamfara APC was intact, saying the committee should beware of people who speak from both sides of their mouths.
While reacting to concerns about his closeness to the Peoples Democratic Congress administration in the state, he said, “I am not bothered by whether someone wants to reconcile with me or not. Politically speaking, I am comfortable and at peace with myself.
“I am still in APC because I choose to, not because of the fear of prosecution. I am part and parcel of the efforts that produced APC. The party did nothing to me; I did everything for it. All the political troubles I faced are traceable to my support for APC.”
Marafa added, “Remember the 8th National Assembly leadership crisis? Remember how Yari scuttled the APC plan? I was a senator of the Federal Republic when APC was formed. I contributed immensely to its success.
“I listened to Yari’s press briefing after his visit to the APC secretariat; he cowardly tried to say something like he sent some people to the National Assembly. But the moment they were there, they forgot how they got in there.
“Let me put the record straight. In 2011, when Yari was desperate to become governor, he came to my house in my village the night PDP fraudulently denied me ticket in favour of the then incumbent senator.
“Yari begged me to accept their ticket (ANPP), which at that time meant nothing, looking at the fact that the federal, state and local governments were all under the firm control of the PDP. He did not bring the ticket to my house because he loved me; ANPP offered me the ticket because they were desperate to win the election.”
He said Yari pleaded with him to contest because he knew he had people behind him, noting, “They love me and the people of Zamfara Central demonstrated their love for me by giving me 100,000 votes over and above the incumbent senator. The incumbent Senator got 93,000 votes and I got 203,000 votes.
“Senator Yarima, who came from the same zone with Yari, won marginally with less than 7,000 votes. PDP’s Senator Sahabi Ya’u won the other zone with a margin of about 10,000 votes. So, I brought the winning votes.
“The records are there, and the situation is still the same. It was after he spent eight years as governor that he thought he was strong enough to uproot me. But God taught him the lesson of his life. Or do you think it is easy for a poor senator to challenge a sitting governor, Chairman Governors’ Forum, with unlimited resources from his state, the Paris Club and all other clubs you can think of?…
“He should stop this hypocrisy and face reality. He is the one that is desperately looking for reconciliation because he caused the problem, not me. He used state resources and incumbency power to get undue advantage. He is now down and out. He should stop deceiving himself.”
