Marafa Berates Yari over Anti-Oshiomhole Protest

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

A member of the National Assembly, Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, (APC Zamfara Central), has faulted the protest in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, calling for the sack of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole.

A number of sponsored protesters stormed Gusau, the Zamfara State capital , Thursday calling for the removal of Oshiomhole over his respect for the rule of law.

Marafa who is Chairman of Senate Committee on Petroleum(Downstream)in a statement issued in Abuja Thursday, said the protesters were mobilised by the State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari following his inability to bend rules to impose candidates who are his cronies on the party in the state.

The ranking Senator who is an APC governorship aspirant in Zamfara State, said Yari should be the one to be sacked and not Oshiomhole whom he described as a law-abiding leader.

“Yari and his co- travelers are wrong and Oshiomhole is right as far as the issues in the party are concerned,” he said.

He insisted that APC primaries were not held in Zamfara State and that there was no consensus.

“There was a court order that says all parties should not take any step that will render useless the litigation before it. The party under the able leadership of Adams Oshiomhole respected the order and said all parties in the crisis should hands off. The party and it leadership should be commended for respecting the law, a foundation upon which APC was built.

“ Two, when the committee of the NWC came to conduct the primary in Zamfara, violent orchestrated by Yari’s people erupted; the committee was forced to cancel the election. This is also a valid thing. The position taken by the governor that primaries should be conducted by the executives in his camp was irresponsible, contemptuous and height of lawlessness. “ The crux of the matter is that there was no election and there was no consensus in Zamfara. So, we are commending Oshiomhole and INEC for respecting the court order” he said.

Marafa said the millions of naira spent by Yari to organise the protest should have been channelled towards securing the release of 17 persons, including two young girls kidnapped in Dauran, Jangebe, Magami and other locations in the state.

“The money spent on the protest should have been used to assist the security agencies in the state to rescue the abducted persons. The governor has stopped assisting security agencies with fund in the
state in the last five months,” he said.