July 2, 2021

Senator Kabir Marafa, a leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State says the defection of Governor Bello Matawalle from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC is in violation of the Supreme Court judgement which declared that the APC had no candidate in the 2019 governorship election in Zamfara.

The lawmaker of the 8th Senate in an interview on ARISE NewsNight on Thursday said if strong reservations expressed by party members over the defection are not managed properly it will snowball into a major crisis that will rock the very foundation of the ruling party.

Speaking on why he believes Matawalle should not be the leader of the APC in the state, he said  “Mai Mala under the constitution does not have the powers to make such pronouncements, we’re going to challenge even his legality of being Chairman of the APC. APC constitution forbids Mala from being Chairman of he Party”.

Recall that the National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC, Mai Mala Buni, had during the formal defection of the Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle and other members to the party dissolved the state caretaker committee of the APC and declared Governor Matawalle as leader of the party in the state.

But the duo of former Governor Yari and Senator Marafa had rejected the dissolution of the committee, saying it is a move to hand over the party to Governor Bello Matawalle’s camp.

Shinkafi who was a former National Secretary in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and who also defected to the APC with Governor Matawalle said stringent actions must be taken against Yari and Marafa to serve as a deterrent to others.

He described the action of former Governor Abdul’azeez Yari as a move to create factions in the party which he says will be resisted and therefore urged the party’s leadership to take drastic punitive actions.

Shinkafi said Yari, Marafa and their supporters should note that nobody is above the law, therefore, the directive by the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Mai Mala Buni to dissolve the state party’s executives from the ward, local government and state levels and also the appointment of Governor Matawalle as the leader of APC in Zamfara is sacrosanct.

The APC Chieftain called on the leadership of the party to expel Former Governor Abdul’azeez Yari, Senator Kabiru Marafa and others who publicly violated the decision of the party’s leadership.