Crisis has befallen the All Progressives Congress in Zamfara State as Senator Kabiru Marafa and his followers regrouped in Kaduna on Sunday night to announce the formation of their faction.
Marafa, who represented the Zamfara Central Senatorial District in the 7th and 8th National Assembly, said he and his group decided to form their own faction in protest to their exclusion in the affairs of the party in Zamfara State.
The APC chieftain while addressing newsmen in Kaduna on Sunday, shortly after the breakout session of a meeting with hundreds of his supporters from Zamfara, insisted that there have been two factions in APC running simultaneously since the Matawalle era.
According to him, the crisis rocking the party in the last six years had been a result of interests from some political heavyweights in the state.
He noted that the crisis led to the APC ruling party then losing major elections in the state, except for President Bola Tinubu, who won Zamfara in the 2023 presidential election.
He also dismissed the insinuation that his faction took the APC to court in 2019 while explaining that the Zamfara APC conducted an illegal primary and still went to the court seeking the legality of the process.
This he stressed was a development which led to his faction joining the group in court before the Supreme Court judgment that awarded the whole state to the opposition People’s Democratic Party came about.
Marafa stated that the decision to re-establish his own faction became necessary because Zamfara State APC could not do without him, thus, the need to assemble his disciples and mobilise for grassroots followership from polling unit to the state level.
He also lamented the spate of insecurity ravaging the state while stressing that the people were under siege as their economy and other activities were grounded as a result of insurgency confronting the state.
Marafa explained further, “The essence of the meeting is just to see ourselves, congratulate ourselves, and commiserate with one another, especially over the unfortunate happenings in Zamfara occasioned by the insecurity that is ravaging the state that is if it has not grounded the state.
“We witnessed the 2019 unprecedented fight between our faction and that of the government of the day then. That was former Governor AbdulAzeez Yari that led the APC to lose the whole of Zamfara State but not like it was erroneously quoted that we caused the problem.
“I was the coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign organisation in Zamfara to the Glory of God, and we were able to convince people, and Tinubu won Zamfara State. Since that time, I have not discussed nor sat with my supporters, so after one year in office by this government, we deem it necessary, timely, wise, and convenient now to see ourselves and commiserate with people who lost their loved ones.
“Now, shortly after we announced this meeting, suddenly APC came alive in Zamfara State. For three years, there was never a single meeting in Zamfara.’’
“Since they have now called the two factions and said that they are the owners of APC and they have called a meeting that they want everybody, then, we said fine. Since this is what they said, in line with our tradition, we don’t look for trouble, so we are going to re-established our own faction and we are going to do it from polling units to the state level.
“Therefore, we are going to reincarnate our faction which we dissolved in favour of the Yari faction,” he concluded.