The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has dismissed Senator Kabiru Marafa’s threat of reducing President Bola Tinubu’s votes by 1 million votes in the 2027 presidential election, saying that he is a confused and clueless politician.
In a statement by the state chairman APC, Tukur Umar Danfulani, he said Senator Marafa is a toothless bulldog who cannot bark and his exit from APC cannot be a threat to President Tinubu in the next election.
The statement reads in parts, “As a political party, the APC in Zamfara has come across an interview granted by former Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa threatening to reduce one million votes tally from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu votes which he claimed to secure to win the 2023 presidential election in the northwest for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that he will stop the President from getting such votes in 2027.
“First, I would like to address that by telling the Nigerian public that apart from being disgraced from the Senate by his constituents in 2019 that he has not recovered from his dementia.
“Even in the 2023 polls where he made uncorroborated calls on the 2023 elections, it should be noted that Marafa could not even win his constituency in the same elections talkless of securing the votes which largely came through the faith the electorate have in the party and in Matawalle, Yari and other respected party leaders in the state.
“Matawalle, the present Minister of State for Defence now, served as the Tinubu/Shatima Presidential Campaigns Council for the whole of northwest and initially double as the Zamfara State coordinator but seeing that the work would be overwhelming, suggested the Zamfara coordination be given to Marafa which was reluctantly approved because he (Marafa) did not merit it.
“Having lost everywhere, Marafa who insisted he be given a high ranking position in the government, began to forment one problem or the other, sometimes using alliances with other trouble makers who would also leave him immediately they discovered his selfish motives.
“APC supporters in Zamfara have grown wiser and more loyal to political leaders like Matawalle, Senator Yari and many others who carry them along, which is why the party won the just concluded Kaura Namoda South State House of Assembly bye election with a wide margin against the runner up (PDP) without any input from the likes of Marafa who tried to sabotage APC’s chances of winning through anti-party maneuvers that didn’t work for them.
“It’s laughable that Marafa who couldn’t win even his ward of Yandoton daji or his local government of Tsafe or his central constituency, could boast of reducing one million votes out of President Bola Ahmed’s votes of 2023.
“The question here is, from where will Marafa get these votes because the entire Zamfara State votes in 2023 were not close to one million votes except if he is going to use his bragging nature of how he did to Senator Ikra Aliyu Bilbis that even his boys such as Aliyu MC , Abubakar Doctor can defeat Ikra to the extent of saying even his vagabond Muzakkiru can defeat Senator Bilbis and boasted that if Ikra defeat Muzakkiru he will retire from politics and he was defeated despite the conduct of supplementary election in his constituency.
“So we the people of Zamfara know that he’s just a lame dog that can only bark but without any tooth to bite.
“Marafa should know that nemesis of his deeds in form of betrayal and deceit will continue to haunt him because even in 2011 he was sponsored by the same Yari he is now envying to win his Senatorial seat and the second attempt was met with heavy resistance from party leaders of his constituency but with the intervention of the former Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad at the presidential Lodge, Gusau, to consider and support Marafa if not he wouldn’t have won even at primary election.
“Let’s put the records straight, what is expected from Senator Marafa during the interview is to tell the world how many votes he secured himself and that of his opponent in the last election before talking about reducing President Bola Ahmed votes while peddling lies and propaganda that are dead on arrival.
“He knows that even his family will not follow him, that is why he has resorted to media campaigns to get outside sympathy but he knows people of the state have already concluded on him electorally.
“We urge him to come to Zamfara and reassess his popularity among the electorate, we believe he will bury himself in shame.
“His unguarded utterances are just out of frustration of losing election and his inability to secure appointments in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
“Ordinarily, if not because he touched the President in his uncivilized manner, we would not have responded to a lower and rejected politician like him.
“It is high time he shines his eyes and face reality as Zamfara APC is now formidable, united and victory is on its side that no amount of media campaigns can distract our achievements as being demonstrated in the just-concluded by-election in Kaura Namoda South State House of Assembly constituency.”
Reacting on the issue, the chairman Senator Kabiru Marafa Consultative Forum Comrade Bashir Muhammed Mafara, told LEADERSHIP that Marafa is not a toothless bulldog as they desperately wish him to be, stressing that “A man who commands relevance does not need propaganda; his works and record speak louder than their poor grammar and tissue of lies.”
He said, Senator Marafa courageously picked the governorship form against the selfish wishes of Abdul’aziz Yari, stood firm against injustice, and fought gallantly until the courts pronounced Matawalle Governor.
“Ironically, it was that same struggle that paved the way for the likes of Danfulani, a PDP man yesterday to reap from APC today. Ingratitude to God and betrayal of truth is what you people now dress up as politics.
“It is equally laughable that a Chairman who hides his face in shame dares to say Marafa did not deserve his appointment as State Coordinator of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
We challenge the most unpopular APC Chairman in Zamfara State: before barking like a baby dog, show the world the results of your own ward and LGA in the governorship election. Records are clear, Senator Marafa has never lost in his polling unit or ward, and by the grace of God he never will,” Comrade Bashir Mafara concluded.
