After fight to finish in APC, Yari, Marafa defect to PDP in Zamfara
Former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul-Aziz Yari, and Senator Kabiru Marafa have dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Zamfara State PDP Chairman, Col. Bala Mande, announced their defection while addressing the press after the State Working Committee meeting in Gusau on Sunday.
According to Bande, Yari, Marafa and their supporters will be formally received into the party at a later date.
It would be recalled that Yari and Marafa locked horns in a supremacy battle that tore APC apart in the state over selection of candidates for the 2019 elections.
APC as the ruling party in the state held parallel state primaries and became factionalised because the then Governor Yari and Senator Marafa refused to backdown.
While APC won the governorship election and majority of the seats for state House of Assembly, the Federal High Court eventually nullified the party’s victory at the poll and award the election to PDP, leaving APC with nothing.
Upon Governor Mattawale’s defection to APC, Yari and Mafara rejected the governor as the party leader in the state, a move that led to their eventual defection to PDP.
“We have called you to brief you on the joining of our great party, the PDP of the former Governor, His Excellency, Alhaji Abdul-Aziz Yari, Senator Kabiru Garba Mafara and their supporters,” the PDP chairman said.
“They have joined us, we had agreement and we are going to implement it.
“We have agreed to be together in one party, the PDP and work together for the success of the party in Zamfara State.
“We have also agreed to work extra hard to reclaim Zamfara State in 2023 and save the people from the present predicament.
“I have given the stakeholders a complete update of where we are as a result of this development.”
Yari was one of the candidates for the APC National Chairmanship position before stepping down for the consensus candidare Adamu Abdullahi at the party’s national convention last month.
