A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State, Senator Kabiru Marafa has rejected the naming of the state governor, Mr. Bello Matawalle as the leader of the party in the state.
He also described the crisis in the APC in the state as self-inflicted, stressing that the naming of Matawalle as the leader of the party in the state by the leadership of the APC is not in the party’s constitution.
He said his group will also challenge the legality of Governor Buni’s chairmanship of the APC.
Speaking last night on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY, the APC chieftain said “the people of Zamfara are aggrieved and justifiably so and now coming to rob salt on injury amounts to asking for too much. We nuture this party from inception to date, we have internal crisis in the APC for almost two years that cost us all our positions in the last election.”
“Now somebody comes and said he wants to be a member of our party. Fine, even at that we accepted it and said let’s sit down and talk. We asked for not too much from the party – just allow us to consult with our people and allow us to go on with our own; you said no. We said, ‘go and do your ceremony and come back and let’s talk, we want our people on one side and the governor on the other side, then the leadership of the party at the middle. Let us hear what the governor wants by coming to APC.
“They promised us that is what they are going to do following the intervention of Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai. We agreed, only for the party chairman to go to Gusau to announce the governor as our leader,” he explained.
He said there are fifth columnists in the state who wanted to destroy the party, alleging that they will go any length to see the party destroyed.
He said his group did not attend the defection ceremony in Gusau because they felt having nurtured the party, the ordinary party members in the state were not carried along as promised by the leadership of the party.
He stated that the party’s caretaker committee does not have the powers under the APC constitution to make such pronouncements.
“We are going to challenge even the legality of Buni being the chairman of APC. “When you look at the APC constitution, Section 14, Sub., 4 forbids him from being the chairman of the party. I have alerted the president that we should be very weary these banana peels; we are going to ask these fundamental questions when the need arises,” he added.
