A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Kabir Marafa, who represented Zamfara Central at 8th National Assembly, has claimed that he assisted former governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari to emerge as governor in 2011.
The former lawmaker, was reacting to an interview by Yari recently, also alleged that the former governor is misleading the Governor Mai Mala Buni led APC committee among other issues.
SINL Nigeria reporter, Tayo Alabi was there.
QUE: What is your reaction to the statement of former governor Abdulaziz Yari that APC in Zamfara is intact and that Gov Mai Mala Buni should go home and sleep?
ANS: Thank you so much for this question. Let me first of all begin by saying that I am not surprised by that statement coming from Yari and am not bothered, if he says all is well with APC in Zamfara I agree with him, let us wait for round two.
On whether Gov Mai Mala should go to sleep or double his effort is left to him (Mai Mala). All I know is 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 means well for 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.
QUE: Yari impliedly said, reconciling with you will do no good to the party as you are part and parcel of the PDP government in Zamfara. He alleged that you produced the SSG and some commissioners under the PDP government in the state. How do you react to this?
ANS: Well, I am equally not bothered by whether someone wants to reconcile with me or not, politically speaking, 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 brought the ticket to my house because he loved me, ANPP offered me ticket because they where desperate to win the election, he pleaded with me to contest because he knew I have 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.
Sen Yarima who came from the same zone with Yari won marginally with less than 7,000 votes, PDP’s Sen 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. 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, Paris Club and all other clubs you can think of?
He could not for instance as a sitting Governor match my rally, he in fact could not organize one, my rally was played live on NTA go and find out, I defeated him hands-down.
Look, I am used to taking risk, I took risk with him (Yari) in 2011, I can still take risk today, I challenge him (Yari) to come out and take risk. What is he doing in APC? He is only afraid of EFCC because of the atrocities he committed as a Governor and Chairman of NGF, let me and him pick two different political parties other than the ruling party and contest election and see who will win.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 so he should stop deceiving himself. Politics is a game of number and thank God I have the numbers, forget about pulling crowd of useless BABBAN RIGA wearing looters, they can’t do nothing.
On the issue of locking the house bearing the arsenals with an armed robber (according to him), this is laughable, I think he should look at himself and the people around him, he is a certified Pen robber and the one moving and dinning with licensed hypocrites, tested and “trusted” treasury looters, pen robbers and fraudulent people like Ikra Bilbis, the records of their (Yari & Ikra) stewardship of Zamfara State and Tsafe local Govt speak volumes of their individual capacities to steal. Ikra Bilbis milked Tsafe local Govt dry when he was the chairman, he was arrested and detained, he had to dress like a woman to escape out of Gusau when Gov Yarima ordered for his arrest, Ikra Bilbis is still the chairman of NBC board after he contested the 2019 elections, so what happened? He didn’t resigned his appointment as required by the law or was he reappointed by Mr President after he lost the election? Ikra is naturally fraudulent, the authorities should investigate and find out why he is still in NBC.
Yari on the other hand is glued to the APC because of fear of arrest and prosecution, he hates APC and its leadership right from the time of primaries but he lack the courage to move out, the records of his thievery is in all the offices of EFCC in Abuja and Sokoto.
QUE: How about the allegation of having SSG, Commissioner in PDP Government in Zamfara state?
ANS: On having SSG and a commissioner in the PDP led Zamfara State Government, nothing can be far away from the truth, this has again underscored Yari’s hypocrisy because Yari’s APC knows better than anyone that both the SSG and the said Commissioner are members of another political party. They contested the 2019 general elections on the platform of that political party not the APC, so what is Yari talking about? they shouldn’t have been appointed because they are my friends? As at today, 10 local Govt Chairmen that are certified Yari boys, anointed and put into office by Gov Yari before he left office, his former deputy Governor, the present Commissioner of home security who was a former vice chairman under Gov Yari are all serving under Gov Matawalle, so what is he talking about? Let him swear by Allah that he didn’t plant them there ahead of 2023 to reduce burden?
QUE: What is your reaction to the statement by Mai Mala Buni’s panel that the letter ordering the expulsion of the members of your camp was forged?
ANS: You see, this too underscores Yari desperation to control the APC in Zamfara, his boys forged the documents to show that Gov Buni’s committee is with them, if you are popular why do you need to do that stupid thing to deal with your opponent?
Anyway, it’s a welcome development and a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough to say the documents are forged and stop there, the party must go the extra mile to fish out the culprits and punish them to serve as deterrent to others that may want copy their bad example in other states!
