Former Zamfara Gov. Yari, Marafa Deny Quitting APC For PDP

A former Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Yari, and a former Senator from the State, Kabiru Marafa, have denied a social media report on Saturday that they had quit the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The report had cited a meeting of the two men with a former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at a wedding in Kaduna on Friday.

But Mr. Ibrahim Muhammad, a media aide to Yari and former Zamfara Commissioner of Information, told an online newspaper on Saturday that the report was fictitous.

Muhammad alleged that the report was orchestrated by the political enemies of Yari.

Also denying the report through a statement, Senator Marafa described it as “the wishful thinking of minions who are intimidated by our continued presence in the APC.”

Marafa noted that the reports on social media stated that he and Yari were joining the Peoples Democratic Party following the intervention of Saraki.

He said: “it is our constitutional right to meet, attend, discuss, fly, drive with anybody we wish. Yes, we flew to Kaduna with Saraki to attend Sheik Bala Lau daughter’s wedding, is that a crime?

“When the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar attended the wedding Fatiha of Yusuf Buhari in Bichi, did that amount to decamping to APC?

“We were senior architects, engineers and planners in the project team that designed, built and maintained APC from inception to date; so it will be irrational for anybody to think maltreatment, injustice or wicked rumours will make us abandon our project to some overambitious members,” Marafa said.

Messrs Yari and Marafa are angry over the ceding of the leadership of the APC in Zamfara State to Governor Bello Matawalle, following the governor’s defection from the PDP.

Ironically, it was an intractable dispute between both men that led to the disqualification of the APC from the 2019 general elections in Zamfara, paving the way for the award of the governorship to Matawalle.