APC has illegal national leadership, says Senator Marafa

The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) is about taking a new dimension as a chieftain of the ruling party, Senator Kabiru Marafa, has threatened to challenge the legality of the caretaker committee in court.

Marafa at a media parley on Sunday in Abuja declared as illegal all actions so far taken by the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).

He said Buni’s caretaker committee is unknown to law.

Marafa, a senator that represented Zamfara Central in the eighth Senate, said he is going to court to challenge the constitutionality of the caretaker committee.

It will be recalled that the feud between Marafa and former Governor Abdulaziz Yari made APC to lose all elective positions in 2019 elections as the Supreme Court declared that APC had no candidate in the election.

Marafa has warned about a repeat of such.

Marafa said: “Mai Mala Buni’s CECPC is an illegal committee. It cannot conduct anything. Whatever it does is a nullity and it cannot stand in this country. We are going to challenge him on that in court and I don’t care what anyone will say. Buni looked for my trouble and I will give him 10 times of that.

“The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is very clear that you cannot hold an executive position and hold party position at the same time. Our APC constitution is also very clear in Article 2 which is the supremacy of the constitution. In S. 17(4), it says no officer of the party shall hold any executive position in government concurrently with the party position.

“He is an Executive Governor. He cannot be the Chairman of APC and if he can, let the courts tell us. I am going to court; I am going to challenge that. And whatever he did from the time he was appointed to this time will be questioned. We have one APC. Remove this man so that he doesn’t bring everybody down. I am on a salvage mission.

“Article 20 of the same constitution says all party posts prescribed by this constitution shall be filled by democratically conducted elections at respective national convention or congress subject where possible to consensus. Who elected Buni and his committee? At which convention or congress? Are we throwing away this constitution?

“Then the judgement of the Supreme Court on the Ondo election is a clear indication of where APC is headed but because some people who have never gone to school, but who God has elevated to certain positions, have forgotten how they got to the positions.

“For God sake and with all sense of modesty, I and Governor el-Rufai of Kaduna state almost single-handedly with the help of some people made Buni the National Secretary of the party some years ago.

“We will force him to resign and I am sure the President will also do that.”

But Buni has declared that Marafa is on political suicide mission.

“Marafa’s vituperations on the Zamfara Congress and leadership of APC are

nothing but an empty ranting of an ant. He described the Zamfara Congress as an illegality, if it is so, why did he participate and if he is in doubt of the party’s leadership why did he adhere to every directive it issued?

“He is only complaining now because his camp failed at the congress and lost out. He wouldn’t have been shouting if he had won. Marafa is a sinking politician who lost out and holding everyone responsible for his self-inflicted political misfortune. As a responsible politician, he should just approach the court and stop being the complainant and juror,” Buni’s spokesman, Mamman Mohammed, said.