Zamfara: Matawalle remains your leader, APC tells Yari, Marafa

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has insited Zamfara governor, Bello Matawalle, is the party leader in the state.

This is coming, following the protests by former Zamfara governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa.

The duo had in an interview with BBC Hausa Service on Thursday, rejected the decision of Yobe State governor and chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) caretaker committee dissolving the Zamfara APC executives and declaring Governor Matawalle as the state’s leader.

According to Yari, “It’s one thing that we are challenging, which is the declaration by Governor Mai Mala. His declaration was not part of what we discussed with six governors before he (Matawalle) defected”.

“What we all agreed during our meeting with the six governors was that Matawalle should be received into our fold and afterwards we should discuss how to integrate both his people and ours. But during the defection, we were told that the party executives should be dissolved. You just don’t dissolve executives of a party because nobody has the power to do so,” Yari who has been the leader of the APC said.

On his part, Marafa said the declaration of Matawalle as the leader of the party in the state was tantamount to deception, insisting that they would not accept it.

“We said for proper integration, there should be a meeting for proper consultations but all of a sudden, announcement was made that the party executives had been dissolved and someone was named as leader of our party. This is incorrect,” he said.

Reacting, the National Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, when contacted by The PUNCH, said; “I align myself with our National Chairman, Governor Mai Mala Buni. He spoke the mind of the party; this is not a controversial issue”.

Also in support of Buni’s declaration, a former governor of Zamfara, Senator Ahmed Yerima, said in an interview with BBC Hausa Service on Friday that; “For every member of the APC in Zamfara now, whether he says it or not, the Constitution gives Bello Matawale the leadership of the APC.

“Because of that, all of us are under the leadership of the present governor of Zamfara State.

“In the constitution of the APC in Nigeria, the leader of the party in Nigeria today is President Muhammadu Buhari. In every state, the leader of the party is the governor of that state.

“That is why the National Caretaker Committee Chairman, when he went to Zamfara State, said from that day, the state executive of the party was dissolved and the leadership of the party had been bestowed on the Governor Bello Matawalle.

“Recall, even the former governor, Abdelaziz Yari, in one of the interviews he granted said if the party had the governor, the governor was the leader but since there was no governor at the time and he was the immediate past governor, he was the party leader.

He noted since the governor of the state is now a member of the APC, Matawalle is the party leader in the state.

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