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President Muhammadu Buhari has postponed the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential campaign rally to Zamfara state, slated for Sunday.
The postponement was being linked to the crisis rocking the party which started with the party’s primaries in gubernatorial, national assembly and state assembly positions.
It was reliably gathered that one of the principal actors in the crisis and governorship aspirant, Senator Kabiru Marafa had called President Buhari to cancel the visit because of the backlash that would come from it.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had released the final list of candidates for the March 2 governorship and State House of Assembly elections without that of APC in Zamfara.
Saturday Vanguard reliably gathered that the advance party for the rally had left the State House before information was sent to them to come back.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina confirmed the postponement.
But speaking to State House correspondents, Senator Marafa who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream said he was not aware of the postponement of the rally.
He said, “I am not aware of the cancellation of the APC Zamfara rally; honestly because I was not told. Like I said, I just submitted a proposal which I think will serve the interest of our party, the president and our people.
“We don’t have candidates for now because of the political impasse that characterized Zamfara State in the last few months and the president is billed to be in Zamfara on Sunday, Feb. 3
“Because of the rumple between disagreeing parties, we felt it is better Mr President suspends his visit to Zamfara. After all, we are there; we can campaign for him; he knows us; he knows our individual capacities; there is no point bringing all the factions under one umbrella, because once the president is there, if you like the president and you are with him, you will like to show your face.
“However, we feel it is avoidable; but you cannot come to the president with just one single suggestion. So, I just put my opinion across; that if it is a must; maybe the party has fixed Feb. 3 for the visit, then we want to be excused because there is no way President Muhammad Buhari will go to Zamfara and my face is not seen and if my face is not seen, people will ask questions.
“I think it is not fair just to absent like that. We are not doing what we are doing to impress anybody; we have already gotten all the necessary trust and belief from Mr President even if he is not there, we will do the right thing.
“But if the party or the Presidential Campaign Council feels they must be in Zamfara on Sunday, we and our supporters want to be excused and we will conduct our own rally for the president on a different date and we will televise it live on NTA so that everybody can see.
“So let everybody show his support in Zamfara not to come together and then everybody will be claiming victory that I pulled this crowd; let everybody stand on his own. The most important thing is that we all believe in Mr President and we all like him and we will support him and we want him to win; so let us work individually, and Feb. 16, we will all converge on the box and show what we can do but let the people of Nigeria see us individually.”
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