From Maiharaji Altine, Gusau
The Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa led APC faction in Zamfara state has cautioned Governor Matawalle’s faction of the party to stop associating Gen Aliyu Gusau with banditry activities.
In a statement, the spokesperson of Senator Marafa led APC faction, Bello Bakyaauwa said, the reckless and wild allegation made by Governor Matawalle led APC faction against Gen Aliyu Gusau was baseless, careless and irresponsible.
Bakyaauwa said, “We read with dismay the reckless and wild allegations made by one Yusuf Idris who presented himself as Zamfara State APC Publicity Secretary associating the state of insecurity with a ‘Retired General’ who owns 70 percent of the mining sites in the state”.
“For the record, we the members of Senator Marafa led APC faction seek to be counted out of this madness!”.
“Our faction, under the Chairmanship of Sirajo Garba Maikatako categorically condemns the allegation and considers it baseless, careless and irresponsible”.
“This baseless allegation comes from Governor Bello Matawalle’s APC faction that depends on blackmail, propaganda and witch-hunt to survive”.
“We are obliged by statements like this to call on the media to do well by indicating clearly the faction of APC from where they sourced the content of their publications.
“For the record, Zamfara State so far has three factions of APC namely Former Governor Yari-led faction; Senator Marafa-led faction; and Governor Bello Matawalle-led faction in the order of their formation since the lingering crisis that characterised the party from 2019 to date”.
Bakyaauwa therefore stressed that, “Unless the dispute is settled by competent court of law or acceptable consensus, we want to appeal to the professional standing of the media to properly label reports with their relevant factions to avoid misguided attributions”.
Bakyaauwa called Matawalle-led faction of APC which Mr. Yusuf Idris represents to moderate their desperation and accord due respect to Gen Gusau being an elder statesman.
“We have seen how some online media have already interpreted the statement and associated the allegation with the respected person of General Aliyu Muhammad Gusau (Rtd)”.
“We consider the action of Mr. Yusuf as a too brazen and given to easy defamation on the hard earned character of a senior citizen like General Aliyu Gusau who serves the nation at different levels of note including the position of National Security Adviser”.
“As a faction within the same Party, we consider it apt to advise the APC faction to rather advice its factional leader, Governor Bello Matawalle, to minimise his endless national and international trips and stay in the state to focus on supervising the various operations of the Nigerian army against the bandits”.
