‘Matawalle will never be Zamfara APC leader,’ Yari fumes, as governor receives membership card

Immediate past Zamfara Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari insists that the presentation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) membership card to newly-defected Bello Mohammed Matawalle does not mean that he (Matawalle) is the leader of party in the state.

Matawalle, Thursday, formally received his membership card from the APC as Governor and head of the party in the state, an event which saw none of former Governor Yari’s associates present at the venue.

Yari and some other chieftains of the APC in Zamfara State have been at loggerheads over control of the party structure, as they have rejected the offer to work with the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-elected governor, since his defection to the APC in June.

The former Governor said that there was no doubt that he is still the leader of APC in the state and that Governor Matawalle was making a very big mistake by not consulting him before defecting to the party.

“Whether he likes it or not, I still remain the authentic APC leader in the State, so he should stop parading and deceiving himself as the party’s leader in the state.

“I will never stay alive and see Matawalle being the leader of the party I formed and nurtured in the state”, he warned.

Recall that the former Governor has said that he does not recognize any leadership committee appointed by the national leadership of the party apart from the one led by Ambassador Liman Lawal Kaura.

He emphasized that the appointment was illegal, not according to the constitution of party, and unacceptable to him.

In early July another chieftain of the party in the state, Senator Kabiru Marafa who represented Zamfara Central at the 8th National Assembly was suspended from the APC following his refusal to recognize Matawalle as the party leader in the state.

Marafa had also challenged the legality of Mai Mala Buni as APC national chairman in dissolving the party’s state executive committee.

Marafa said he could not be intimidated by anybody or whatsoever because he is only telling the truth.

According to Mr Marafa, he knows who sent the youths, “I think my friend Mai Mala is afraid and jittery because I told him that if we are pushed to the wall we are going to ask about his legality of being an APC National Chairman.

“So I am not afraid to be expelled from APC and I said it time without number that I made APC, APC didn’t make me, I did everything for APC and APC didn’t do anything for me.

“So for somebody to come to the party today and say I will be suspended, let him not allow me to sleep in APC today.

“What is most important to me is the people of Zamfara and I thank them for the love they are showing me ,they believed in me and I believed in them.

“So let Maimala go and sleep. I am not going to court, I am only telling the truth.

” And if he continues to push us they will see what I am talking about is going to happen and Nigeriains are going to see it,” Marafa stated.

While featuring on BBC Hausa Service, last month, both Yari and Marafa rejected Buni’s dissolution of the state’s party structure.

While officially receiving Matawalle from the PDP at a mega rally in Zamfara, in June, Buni had unequivocally declared the governor, in line with party traditions, as the new leader in the state.

In addition, Buni had also announced the dissolution of the existing APC Executive Committees at all levels in the state, thereby handing the authority to reconstitute a new executive structure in the state.

“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 said.

For Marafa, the declaration of Matawalle as the leader of the party in the state was tantamount to deception, and would be rejected vehemently.

“We will not accept Matawalle as the leader of APC in Zamfara. We will reject such imposition vehemently.

“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,” the senator had said.