Buhari should look into APC’s congress crisis – Marafa

Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Sen. Kabiru Marafa, on Thursday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the crisis trailing congresses of All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country.

Marafa (APC-Zamfara), who made the call ahead of Saturday’s State Congress of the party at a media briefing in Abuja, said that the crisis was capable of scuttling the party’s chances in the 2019 elections, if not addressed.

He alleged that in Zamfara the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party and the governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari “deliberately sabotaged the process by not following party guidelines in conducting any of the two congresses held so far’’.

“After looking at the whole congresses the way it started, you know what the party did and everything, there is massive conspiracy against the party and against the leader of the party.

“If you look at the first scenario, some people just came up with the idea of one year extension for the members of NWC.

“The president was advised that that extension was illegal and will portend serious problem to success of the party.

“The president put his feet down and said we should go for elective congresses or consensus where possible.

“The party came up with guidelines on how these congresses should be conducted, but the same party that produced these guidelines were the first people that broke the rules.

“The whole thing was a kind of sabotage; that the congress will be rancorous, that there will be parallel congresses, and a set of executive will be established for each state.

“The whole thing comes to just one thing; another sabotage,” he said.

The lawmaker, however, warned that unless the party did what was right and the leaders at the top addressed the issues critically, “there is going to be a problem”.