I fought Saraki because he was against our party but stopped fighting him when Buhari, party intervened, says Senator Mafara

Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, Senator Kabiru Marafa, APC, Zamfara Central, on Sunday, explained why he stopped the war with Senate President Bukola Saraki and the leadership of the 8th Senate.

Marafa said he had to put an end to the fight with the Senate President, following the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, that asked him to sheath his sword and embrace peace for national development.

He also declared that his reason for dong that had nothing to do with chairmanship position of a “juicy committee” as being insinuated.

Senator Marafa, who made the clarification against the backdrop of claims by a coalition of northern youths which had alleged that he had transmuted from a protagonists to shareholder since he became chairman of the committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) on July 21, 2016, said there was no truth in the claim and allegations.

Marafa had earlier been appointed chairman of the Committee on National Identity and National Population in November 2015 in the heat of the war between him and Saraki.

According to him, both the beginning and the end of the fight between his group, the Senate Unity Forum, SUF, and the like minds 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?”

It would be recalled that Senator Marafa refused to accept the chairmanship position of the earlier committee given to him by the Senate president in 2015 and, in fact, refused to recognize any of the 65 standing committees of the Senate as constituted then, on account of antagonism of the Senate Unity Forum, SUF, to which he belonged, against the leadership of the 8th Senate under Saraki.

But he dramatically changed his disposition to the Senate leadership headed by Saraki from that of negativism to that of positivism on Thursday, July 21, 2016, when he was made Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream).