Senator representing Zamfara Central, Kabiru Marafa has disclosed how the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, stopped the war between him and the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki.
Marafa, who is the Chairman of Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, on Sunday revealed that Buhari and the APC leadership asked him to sheath his sword and embrace peace for the sake of national development.
The Senator, who is a member of APC, yesterday said his reason for the fight with Saraki and the leadership of the 8thsenate had nothing to do with chairmanship position of a “juicy committee” as being insinuated.
He maintained that the beginning and the end of the fight between his group, the Senate Unity Forum, SUF, and those supporting the Saraki-led Senate leadership, were determined by the stance of the party at every given time.
Marafa said: “I did not fight Bukola Saraki because he is Saraki; I fought because my party said I should fight and when my party said I should stop, I stopped. The decision to end all these hostilities and bring the two sides together was taken by APC and President Buhari himself. It was not me or anybody.
“The party said my children, come together, this one has won the senate president, you this side give them the Senate Leader and Deputy Senate Leader, and it was done, was that not what happened?
‘’Now you have formed committees, give them some committees, is that not what happened? I don’t know why Nigerians forget things easily. It was the party and President Buhari that intervened.
“So the assertion that I was given a juicy committee to stop fighting the Senate president is rubbish, am I not entitled to a committee? I am even more qualified to head committees by our rules, I am a ranking senator, I was the vice chairman of the Petroleum Upstream Committee in the 7th Senate for four years, it is my turn to become the chairman now.
“It is only about 30 senators that made it back to the senate in the 8th assembly and I am one of them. So by the senate rules, I am entitled to any committee, I am not saying my colleagues are not qualified, but by the rules, I am qualified to head any committee.
“So I fought because my party said this is the direction and when the party said stop I stopped. A letter was written by the party saying give unity forum this and that, and that was how Ahmed Lawan became the Senate Leader, and that was how my own committee was changed and besides, do people want me to remain irrelevant in the senate because I am defending APC?”
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