Marafa’s faction shut out of APC convention

The faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which Kabir Marafa, senator representing Zamfara central belongs to, was denied entry into Eagle Square, venue of the party’s national elective convention on Saturday.

Speaking with journalists outside the venue of the convention on Saturday, Muhammad Bello Bakyasuwa, spokesman of the Marafa faction, told journalists that they fulfilled all the requirements for contesting for positions during the congresses which held in May but they are not recognised by the party.

While calling on the party’s leadership to recognise their faction as legitimate, Bakyasuwa said they came to the convention to show support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid.

“We belong to the legitimate APC faction in Zamfara state. The APC faction under the state chairman, Alhaji Surajo Garba Mai Katako Gusau. We were elected in the parallel APC state congresses of 5th, 12th and 19th May 2018 in Zamfara state,” he said.

“We are here in Abuja to express our happiness, support and solidarity with our party over the national convention holding today to produce new national leaders for us.

“We are in Abuja to witness this convention as Zamfara state national convention delegates and supporters of senator Kabir Garba Marafa, CON, for Governor of Zamfara State in 2019 and also supporters of President Muhammed Buhari for second term in 2019.

“We are here with all our delegates and over one thousand supporters but we have been denied entry into the Eagle Square. So, we hereby appeal to our new national party leaders to be fair and recognize our faction as the legitimate APC leadership in Zamfara state.

“As you can see we are the majority but the security operatives stopped us from entering into the venue of the convention. Right now we don’t know where our chairman is.”

The faction’s spokesman said they would seek redress.

“We are dully and legitimate elected executives of APC in Zamfara state. They stopped us because some of our supporters were wearing T- shirts with the photograph of our leader, Senator Kabir Garba Marafa,” he said.

Marafa and Abdulaziz yari, the governor, are not on the same page.