Count me out of any meeting with Yari, says Marafa

Kabir Marafa, former senator representing Zamfara central, has distanced himself from a reconciliatory meeting between Abdulaziz Yari, former governor of the state, and members of his faction known as the G8.

On Wednesday, Shehu Isah, spokesman of Yari’s faction, had told NAN that Aminu Sani Jaji, a former lawmaker and member of G8, had met with the former governor to resolve the crisis in Zamfara APC.

The in-fighting between Yari and Marafa had made the party lose all elective positions in the state in the last general election.

But in a statement on Thursday, Marafa described the parley as a “charade”, adding that Yari is only seeking to relaunch himself back to relevance both with the meeting of which he would not be part of.

“I was neither contacted nor consulted by anybody for any parley to resolve the APC crisis in Zamfara state,” he said.

“He (Yari) rejected and deliberately thwarted all efforts to reach an amicable settlement and peaceful resolution of the crisis by the leadership of our party, the presidency, political associates and well wishers because he had state and governors forum’s resources, influence and powers at his disposal at that time.

“He hung on to a baseless, hopeless and useless judgment he procured from his state high court which fell flat before both the esteemed superior justices of the court of appeal and supreme court.

“Now that he is out of power and out of favour from God and the people, he is now trying to come up with a kangaroo peace meeting to relaunch himself back to relevance.

“He refused to listen to the voice(s) of reason when peace would have benefited our people and party.”

According to him, the misfortunes of APC in Zamfara began with the former governor’s “characteristic illiteracy, stubbornness and abominable act of playing God when he in fact was a paper tiger.”

“I remain loyal and committed to the APC at the national level. Also, I’m committed and loyal to my faction of the APC in Zamfara state, no retreat no surrender,” he said.

“I started my battle to ensure that our party’s constitution and electoral act are respected during our party’s congresses. This is why we had a parallel party executives in the state till this moment.”