Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Coordinator in Zamfara Quits, Calls President 'Use-And-Dump Leader'

Casmir Ita

Former Zamfara Central Senator, Kabiru Marafa, who served as the state coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organisation during the 2023 presidential election, has resigned from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Marafa, who represented Zamfara Central in the Senate from 2011 to 2019, announced his exit along with his political structure.

He accused President Bola Tinubu of betrayal, describing him as a “use-and-dump leader.”

Tinubu secured victory in Zamfara State during the 2023 polls, defeating Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, with Marafa serving as the chief campaign strategist for the ruling party in the state.

During the campaigns, Marafa had urged Tinubu not to bother visiting Zamfara, boasting that the state was already secured for him.

However, in a communiqué issued on Friday after a two-day meeting of his supporters under the aegis of the Senator Kabiru Marafa Consultative Forum, the former lawmaker said both he and the state had been sidelined since Tinubu’s emergence as President.

The meeting, which held in Kaduna on August 27 and 28, brought together Marafa’s supporters from the 14 local government areas of Zamfara.

In the communiqué signed by Bashir Mafara, Mannir Tsafe and seven others, the group said the mass resignation was in protest against what it described as sustained injustice, mistrust, marginalisation, and deliberate neglect of Zamfara State and its people.

“The entire structure with all its supporters hereby formally resigns from the All Progressives Congress in protest against the sustained injustice, mistrust, marginalisation, and deliberate neglect of Zamfara State and its people.

"We shall, in due course, announce our next political direction, guided by the collective interest of the good people of Zamfara State,” the communiqué partly read.

The forum lamented worsening insecurity in Zamfara, citing figures released by multiple media outlets, which showed the state topped the list of kidnap cases in the country.

According to the group, out of 4,722 people abducted nationwide in 2024, 1,203 victims were from Zamfara alone, followed by Kaduna with 629 cases.

It also referenced data from Zamfara Circle Community Initiatives, which reported that 25 villages were attacked in a single week, with 145 persons abducted and 21 killed across Gusau, Kaura, Bukkuyum, Tsafe, Bakura, and Talata Mafara local government areas.

The group accused the Federal Government of failing to protect lives in Zamfara, while heavily deploying security operatives during the recent House of Assembly bye-election in Kaura Namoda allegedly to ensure electoral victory for the APC.

“Tragically, after the election, security forces were withdrawn and attacks resumed immediately,” it stated.

Marafa’s group further alleged that huge sums were spent on vote-buying during the election, exploiting the poverty of residents whose lives had been devastated by banditry.

On political exclusion, the forum faulted Tinubu for allocating only a Minister of State slot to Zamfara, while Lagos, where he lost in 2023, got multiple full cabinet positions and other federal appointments.

It described the development as a “deliberate marginalisation” of the state despite its contribution to Tinubu’s victory.

The group added that Tinubu’s refusal to visit Zamfara or show solidarity with communities hit by repeated bandit attacks, while extending assistance to other states with less severe insecurity, amounted to selective justice and betrayal of trust.

According to the group, such treatment negates the principles of fairness, equity and justice upon which the APC was founded.