One of the key players within the Zamfara APC Senator Kabir Garba Marafa has set up a factional group within the party at a meeting with his supporters in Kaduna on Sunday.
The setting up of the factional group by Sen. Marafa marked the beginning of another fresh crisis within the party.
The senator who represented Zamfara Central Senatorial District in the 7th and 8th National Assembly announced the re-emergence of his factional group after what he declared as deliberate exclusion of himself and his followers at the re-invented APC monthly stakeholders meeting in Zamfara which started end last month.
Marafa told journalists at the aftermath of the meeting with his supporters that since the era of Bello Matawalle after he joined the party, there have been two factions within the APC Zamfara that have been running simultaneously.
He insisted that his decision to accept allegiance to the Yari group then was because of the political reconciliation embarked upon to ensure the unity of the party after the experience of the 2019 elections.
He emphasized that the crises affecting the party APC for the past six years emanated from a baseless interest of some people who sees themselves as the most powerful in the state.
He said the 2019 experience of APC loosing election in Zamfara repeated itself in 2023 except for President Bola Ahmad Tinubu who won his election hands down courtesy of his tireless effort as the Coordinator for Tinubu/Shetima Presidency.
He recalled that the 2019 experience was caused by the illegal primary conducted by the APC led by former Governor Yari which it later went to court to sought for its validation and eventually things turned around leading to loosing of the party’s victory at the apex court.
Explaining reasons why he re-established his group, Marafa insisted that it was due to the single-handed decisions of the leadership of the APC in Zamfara to sidelined him that resulted to him forming another movement aimed at continues mobilization of supporters for APC at the grassroots.
The Senator lamented the spate of insecurity ravaging the state while stressing that the people are under siege as their economy and other activities are grounded as a result of the insurgency confronting the state.
Highlighting reasons for the 2019 crises, Marafa insisted that it was an unprecedented political fight between his factional group and that of the former Governor Yari that resulted in the massive failure for the 2019 not as it was erroneously stated that he caused the crisis.
He insisted that after Yari faction conducted illegal election they went to court as against the old insinuation that his group went to court noting that his group only join the Yari faction to court and cause seeking for justice.
He noted that the 2019 political crisis within the APC ended at the Supreme Court who seized the victory of the APC and move it to the PDP four days to the inauguration date.
“After it, there was a realignment. APC said, Come, let us reconcile, and we did. We dissolved all our structures. That is the Marafa faction, and we affirmed the Yari faction. We did everything within our power to support the Yari faction over time. Then came the Mai Mala Bumi-led Executive that again handed the state over to the government of the day headed by Governor Mohammed Matawalle, and we went back to the trenches once more.
According to him the coming of the then Governor Bello Matawalle into the APC saw another re-alignment leading to the APC Zamfara forming a formidable team marking a sign of political unity.
But he lamented that at the peak of the 2023 election these political power brokers within the Zamfara APC sabotage the unity and peace accord entered into which resulted to him loosing election as senatorial candidate, the seating Governor lost his election and many more of the party’s candidates.
