Zamfara APC Crisis: Marafa, Yari in fresh face-off

In a recent interview in Abuja, Yari who served as governor of the
State until last year, told reporters that APC in Zamfara was intact
and that Governor Mai Mala Buni who is the caretaker committee
chairman of the party, should go home and sleep.

Yari, during the interview, also that reconciling with Marafa will do
no good to the party as he’s a part and parcel of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) government in Zamfara.

He further alleged that Marafa produced the Secretary to State
Government and some commissioners under the PDP government in the
state.

Reacting, Marafa said all was not well with the party VB in Zamfara
State. He said the caretaker committee was already failing in
reconciling various factions and aggrieved members.

“On whether Mai Mala should go to sleep or double his effort is left
to him. All I know is that the committee is already failing and they
are failing because they are listening to the likes of Yari who always
speak from the two sides of their mouth.

“There are a few good people in the committee that mean well to the
party and I advise them to wake up and do what they are asked to do
and leave the politics of 2023. Nobody can bring the position of
national chairman to the north now.

“The moves by some crooks within the Governors forum to hijack the
party and install a serving governor and an expired one to succeed
President Buhari will crash the way Yari’s selfish agenda crashed
totally,” he said.

Responding to Yari, he said: “Well, I am equally 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 the
APC because I choose to, not because of fear of prosecution.  I am
part and parcel of the efforts that produced APC.

“The party did nothing to me, I did everything to it. All the
political troubles I faced are traceable to my support for APC.
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 Govt
were all under the firm control of the PDP. He didn’t bring the ticket
to my house because he loved me.

“ANPP offered me the ticket because they were desperate to win the
election. He pleaded with me to contest because he knew I had people
behind me. They loved 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 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’s 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.

“Do you think it is easy for a poor senator to challenge a sitting
governor, Chairman Governors’ forum with unlimited resources from his
state, Paris Club and all other clubs you can think of?”