Ex-senator Marafa quits APC, says Tinubu sidelined Zamfara

Kabiru Marafa, former senator representing Zamfara central, has resigned his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Marafa, who served as the Zamfara coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign in the 2023 presidential election, accused President Bola Tinubu of abandoning the state despite its significant contribution to his victory.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a use-and-dump leader,” Marafa said in a communique issued after a meeting of his political structure in Kaduna.

The meeting, which held between August 27 and 28, was attended by supporters of the senator under the aegis of the Kabiru Marafa Consultative Forum.

The group deliberated on what it described as worsening insecurity, political, and developmental indices in Zamfara.

The communique, signed by eight members, including Bashir Muhammad Mafara, Mannir Bature Tsafe, and Muzakkiru Sidi Bawa, said the state had been reduced to a theatre of killings and kidnappings despite Tinubu’s campaign promises.

It claimed that 1,203 of the 4,722 people kidnapped in Nigeria in 2024 were from Zamfara.

The forum also referenced reports by Zamfara Circle Community Initiatives, which documented attacks on 25 villages in one week, with 145 people abducted and 21 killed.

“Despite these tragedies, the federal government has done nothing to protect the people, but it deployed heavy security to the state during bye-elections only to ensure victory for the APC,” the communique reads.

The group accused the APC-led government of politicising insecurity by neglecting communities ravaged by banditry while “spending heavily on vote-buying” during the Kaura Namoda by-election.

The forum also decried what it described as the marginalisation of Zamfara in political appointments.

It noted that Zamfara, one of only two states in the north-west that handed Tinubu victory, was allocated only a minister of state, while Lagos — where Tinubu lost — got multiple appointments in key economic agencies.

“Mr President has never visited Zamfara since assuming office, even though our people have suffered more severe forms of banditry than other states that have enjoyed presidential attention and financial aid,” the communique added.

The group said Tinubu’s actions negated the APC’s founding principles of fairness, justice, and accountability.

It resolved that the political structure of Marafa across all 147 wards in Zamfara has unanimously resigned from the APC.

It added that the next political move of the structure would be announced soon, “guided by the collective interest of the good people of Zamfara state”.

In 2023, Marafa said Tinubu would reward Zamfara for its contribution to his electoral victory.